SAMIA: Hello, Salam, Shalom, Namaste, Sat Sri Akal, Aloha, Hola, Ciao, Bonjour and Buna!It's so excellent to be with you again and I'm really really happy I'm sure we'll have lots of fun with our guests today Teresa Paul who is a Business Mentor and Sales Coach and I'm just so excited you're here Teresa welcome...

TERESA: Thank you I'm excited to be here thank you for having me

SAMIA: Yes and I'm going to ask you to jump right in and tell us a little bit more about who you are and what you do 

TERESA: Okay...I am a Career Sales person so it's safe to say I have mastered the field of sales and marketing...

I've been doing it in the offline world for over 30 years and so I really started very young and I learned in the trenches you know back then there wasn't sales training the sales training was here's the phone book go find some customers right and so I learned the process from day one all the way up through the ranks and so about a year ago I decided to leave the offline world and join the online world and bring my experience online to help people who have a dream have a vision have a desire to build a business but they don't know the mechanics of how to actually get that message out talk to people and then bring them into their world and it's that's so valuable and I think we tend to overlook it it's almost like the elephant in the room sometimes you know you need to do it but we're gonna go do this instead and so what I want to do is demystify it and and I talk about selling as a conversation not as an act right you're just having another conversation with someone and really if you've ever bought anything aren't you glad that a salesperson is there to explain what it is right what you're buying so typically if you get into that discussion somebody wants to buy what you're selling so you're not actually selling you're just educating them to the point where they want to work with you and so that's sort of my methodology now I've left the hard sell behind I know how to do that but it just it there's no it doesn't feel good it's all about the money and what I want is it to be about the passion and people growing a business to help people and reaching out and learning how to do that in a way that's comfortable to them 

SAMIA: I absolutely love that you know I know for me as a coach trainer healer that's why I got into the work because I have a passion for helping people and I couldn't do this work if I felt like I had to be sleazy or you know like I mean make other people feel uncomfortable because I was being overly aggressive or something like if I think I'm being like that then it actually... it's like a block for me like I can't move forward and I stop myself and so like for me it was so important to find a way to engage in this process of marketing and sales that felt authentic for me and that felt comfortable for me and that I could feel really good about relating to other people in that way so I'm so appreciative of what you're just sharing 

TERESA: Great... Well and if you think about it sales can be uncomfortable for both parties and it's your job as the business owner growing the business to make it uncomfortable right but you don't want to make it so comfortable that they don't buy you want to amplify the discomfort a little bit so they understand that they don't want to be in this place anymore without going overboard and talking about you know the pain as if it's you know debilitating and so there's a really fine balance between letting people off the hook and just letting them say no I think I'll be fine for a while and saying will you be fine for a while and how long right that's just amplifying their discomfort versus saying you know if you don't do this now you're just going to be in pain for the rest of your life there's a way to do it and say it so that people make their own decision to move forward again it has to be their decision

SAMIA: Yes to respect the other person's right to say no that is that's just I agree with you I agree with you there... cool so when you think about sales like can you talk a little bit more to me about why you find sales such a wonderful thing why do we need sales 

TERESA: Sure so my passion is about connection... connection with other people and I think that's why I stayed in sales for so long because I made so many friendships and so many people trusted me and it was just a really good foundation for me now the corporate side of it not so much but the connections I made did and so sales to me is about making connections like Samia you and I didn't know each other six months ago but one of us reached out and said hi and the other one said hi back and now we have a connection right we have a collaboration we work together we stay in touch that's what it's about for me and so when I connect with people that I don't know I have in my mind can I collaborate with them or can I help them you know and they can be my client because that moves everything forward so as a business connection you want to make sure you're moving your business forward if you just want to be friends with somebody that's great but then they're not a business connection right I help you you help me and it's a symbiotic relationship and so I just I love meeting new people and and I've learned to meet new people online it's much different than meeting new people offline but I love meeting new people finding out what makes them tick and then connecting with them and then helping them if I can or getting their help if they can help me and then it just happens naturally that way but it takes confidence to be able to do that and it takes no agenda like you have to go into a conversation without an agenda unless it's an absolute sales call where both people agree that this may be a sale there's no agenda in the conversation it moves wherever it's going to go and that's the beautiful part of it for me 

SAMIA: I love that I love that and so as you think about sales I know one thing that you're really awesome at is helping people understand the different stages of the process to treat sales to see... to be able to see that actually sales is like a process and what those different stages of the process are and it would be wonderful if you could share some of that wisdom with us 

TERESA: Perfect absolutely... so the first stage of the sale we usually refer to these as leads right so you have cold leads warm leads and hot leads so the cold leads my definition of a cold lead is somebody who is a potential client or potential collaborator who doesn't know you so somebody out there in the world who might benefit from you but doesn't know you so then a warm lead is someone who is aware of you and is interested in you so maybe they follow you they listen to your podcast they read your content and a hot lead is someone who's ready to buy now not necessarily ready to buy from you but ready to buy your products and services but you can't get a hot lead without first introducing yourself to a cold lead... right you have to start there and you have to say hi and that's really all you have to do that's all I do I say hi this is who I am here's my story tell me your story and it moves on from there and so it really is that sort of marketing funnel that moves them through the process now here's where most people make the mistake is when somebody's interested in them then they try to close them right before they've actually decided that this is where they need to be so you have to give them time and you have to nurture them and there's a lot of output that's what's so hard about sales is you put out a lot of energy before somebody reaches back and says great I think I want to talk to you and so it sometimes feels like a little bit lonely because you're talking especially online where you're not face to face with them and you're putting out so much content but then somebody comes back and says I love your content and I love the way you write I so much appreciate what you have to say okay so they're interested but they're not ready to buy they haven't said tell me about your program or how much is your coaching they have just said hey thank you and that's where the conversation sparks right that's when you start to talk to them and you build a natural relationship with them but in sales as a sales person it's up to me to nurture that relationship right when you make a friend it's 50/50. they can call you or you can call them in sales I want to nurture that relationship to see where it goes not to be pushy but I want to take control of the nurturing so that we don't lose contact with each other So I think that's the biggest difference so you go from cold to hot to client or collaborator and then it just grows from there 

SAMIA: I love that and you're right so often the problem I know I did this a lot was that I jumped the gun too fast and then you know it's like and then you sort of like start to be like oh no so many people are saying no why did I like there must be something wrong with my product or the service that I'm offering maybe I need to make it cheaper you know like you get yourself into this like whole funk and the whole time the only core problem or one of maybe part of the core problem was that you just jumped too soon there's nothing actually wrong with your offer 

TERESA: Right right if you do this correctly Samia people will ask you to buy you won't even actually have to close they'll ask you to buy if you do it properly but you have to have patience right so I have a grandbaby and I remember when she was first start learning to walk it was so frustrating to me because I'm just like stand up and walk I know how to do it you should do it but it took her time to get there and now she cannot run me right she's two and she but you had to I had to respect the process of it and the same thing with sales you have to just you have to stay in touch but let it happen naturally

SAMIA: Stay in touch and that's the other thing that I thought was really brilliant about what you pointed out that you want to sort of take control of the nurturing process don't just like leave it up to chance because I think that was another huge mistake that I made was that like I know in my friendships in general I tend to sort of let other people take the lead in developing and nurturing the relationship and I'm like oh I'm happy to respond when you reach out but I often times generally wouldn't make the approach myself because I used to be very introverted and very shy about those things so it definitely took some doing and relearning to recognize the value of certainly in this context of when you're trying to build a professional relationship of taking the lead that was a really brilliant insight too yay...

TERESA: Well and a lot many people are like that they're going to wait for somebody else to take the first step right and so and the person who does usually gets the client the person who takes that first step and to build that relationship gets the client because a lot of people are sitting back waiting to find out what happens and then they miss out you know there's a lot of regret in that space about wow I wonder what would happen if I had hired her or I wonder what would happen if I had just taken a step closer if you invite them in then it's easier right if you open the door it's easier to come in but they're probably not going to knock until you open the door and say come on in 

SAMIA: That's so true and just thinking about from shy people's perspective you know it's like just like I used to be really shy about approaching people and making that move there are lots of other people out there who are feeling that as well and so now to put yourself on the other side of the equation and like you said like to open the door and welcome people in

TERESA: Right and they appreciate I'm an introvert too I know it doesn't seem like it but I've had to overcome that and so I have a certain sense of introverts and sometimes they just want to be welcomed in right sometimes they just want to be invited into the conversation and so that part of me kicks in and just says come on in and talk to us if you want to or just listen you don't have to do anything and there's a comfort level that comes in when you invite somebody who is introverted and wants to participate but really is uncomfortable with that situation and so I acknowledge that and so and welcome them in and definitely give them their own space to show up because being an introvert doesn't mean you don't have anything to say being an introvert doesn't mean you don't have any value you have to just create the space for people to speak in their own energy 

SAMIA: Yes that is so true you know that's making me think about are there any sort of clues or indications that people can watch out for or like any mind milestone markers or something like that to watch out for in terms of how do you tell when the core lead has become warm and the warm lead has become hot 

TERESA: Yes absolutely there are and it's not hard and fast for everybody but as a rule of thumb a coldly becomes warm when they enter your world when they comment on your post or they join your group or they become a friend then they become warm... now the warm leads can vary considerably so if I'm a warm lead I won't speak back I will do research and I'll gather information so I'll become hot and you'll never know it and then one day I'll say I think I want to work with you and you'll be like who are you and why have you been hanging out without talking to me right those are the toughest ones because those are the ones that are easy to lose if you're not careful that's why when you write content you want to speak to everybody because you have no idea who's listening and you have no idea where they're at but the warm leads that comment on your posts and  answer your messages those are the people that are interested and they want to make a connection with you and so you need to develop a system of just nurturing that once they become hot they ask very specific questions about working with you... hey can we get on a call if they ask for a call that's a good indication they say what's involved in your coaching program that's a good indication now remember if somebody gets on a call at that level they're either a yes or a maybe right they're yours to close right then and there so that's when you really need to investigate two things when you have somebody on a sales call why are they on the call and why now... if you can get those two things then you can move them forward and closer to getting whatever it is they dream of getting when they work with you 

SAMIA: Yeah that is such an excellent point... so to get clear about why they're on the call and why now that is awesome I love that. So are there any other like major challenges that you notice that people struggle with when it comes to sales that you love to help people with 

TERESA: Sure well there's a lot of mindset things but I won't go into that because there's so many... but there are a few red flags that you need to watch out for You need to watch out for the time waster right the person that consumes all of your free stuff but is never going to collaborate or work with you right so you need to have your radar up for that one the second one is somebody who's not coachable and even if you're not a coach you have some sort of other business if they're not coachable they're not teachable right they're not willing to learn and even if they want to give you their money you probably should step away because that's just going to cause you anxiety and stress and they're never going to be happy You also want to make sure that you have some sort of an energetic connection with the people that you work with or you feel like that there's one there because there's some people that we're just not aligned with for whatever reason right there's some people we just don't want to work with and so you need to honor that as you move through this sometimes we get so excited about getting a sale that we'll just sell to anyone you know I always like this in the beginning with leads if you wanted to be my friend I'd be your friend right and then I got a lot of people trying to sell me stuff a lot of people want to be my V.A. a lot of people wanted to tell me bitcoin and I just got a bunch of junk in there and so you have to be really careful about that and weed it out that stuff will come in but then weed it out right away just unfriend because that doesn't help your business you're not being mean but you're there to build a business and you really want to build it with people around you who are going to support you that you can support too so yeah listen to your own intuition when you're working with people 

SAMIA: Yeah that makes a lot of sense and I have had that experience exactly like you... you were describing actually that I was when I first started my social media profiles like I was very clear that I didn't want to be on social media for personal engagement reasons I really wanted to be on social media more for professional reasons and so forth and yet I was so like oh I don't have any friends right now so anyone who sent me a friend request I would just accept but it my gosh I think one of the things that I really in terms of reading things out is I started doing was just asking fairy up front when someone would send me a friend request that I didn't know it'd be like hey thank you for reaching out and can you tell me a little bit more about what you're wanting or needing if there's anything specific you think I can help you with and you know if the answers they gave are fuzzy or making it clear that you know they were wanting to go in a direction that I was not open to be just like oh thank you for letting me know I really appreciate your honesty and this is not what I'm about this is not why I'm on here... so it really made life much much easier 

TERESA: Yes now I do it a little bit more subtly I research people so if someone sends me a friend request I go to their profile and I read through their posts and I find out what they're about so for instance I don't friend any business coaches anymore I have a few friends in the beginning but it just muddies the water for me and who I'm working with and so I can eliminate them right away not because they're bad people or they're it just plus business coaches tend to be a little bit pushier honestly so I can eliminate those right away but I also get a feel for who they are and I get a feel for if I can help them so if I see a profile page that needs some work I know somebody is trying to make it online but they just don't have the elements in place and I know I can help them so I may not connect with them right away but they may connect with something I say and then reach back to me and say you're right I do need help with my profile page I do need help building my audience so how can you help me with that so I'm a little bit I don't ask I do my own research and then decide but I'm very quick to unfriend you if it just isn't working right that's what it's all about that's a building a business thing it's not deciding whether you'll be the friend word is very confusing right because I don't want to be your friend anymore that's not really the case you might be the greatest friend in the world for a business relationship though this is not in my wheelhouse 

SAMIA: That's true that's true... sometimes the language that we use it's like that can either confuse things or clarify things 

TERESA: Yes yes so I'm very clear about that I use my Facebook page for business right not for personal I never did really use it for personal and I point that out to people so if because there are people online who just want to make more friends 

SAMIA: Yeah 

TERESA: Right they have no intention of building their business they just want to make more friends and great good for them but that's not what I'm about no I that I don't have time for a whole bunch of online friends it does it takes up a lot of time if I'm going to work it then I'm going to work my business so I'm very clear about that too so they don't expect me to ask them what they have for breakfast because it's not that's not how I do it 

SAMIA: Yeah yeah I agree with you... so just having you know clarity within yourself about why you're on a certain platform and if you are interested in being active both at a personal level and a professional level maybe thinking about creating separate pages or I've seen one thing that I've seen some of the coaches that I really like do is that they'll only post about personal stuff on their profile page and then only new professional stuff on their business page you know

TERESA: So there's a problem with that because of the Facebook algorithm Facebook loves the profile page doesn't really give much credit credibility to the business page so if you want to use your profile for both you can create a second profile that's against the Facebook rules and you run the risk of being shut down I know people who do it they've never been caught but the second thing is there's a functionality in Facebook where you can have two different lists and you can send your personal stuff to the personal list and your business stuff to the business list and so you can actually divide it up that way if you really want to separate the two but what I talk about when I'm giving training on this is you know your business is your life especially if it's your passion right and mixing the two isn't necessarily a bad thing it's okay if I'm a business coach and I go to your website to see if you want to do or your profile if you want to do business with me and I see pictures of your kids and your dog and then I see pictures of your business that's perfectly fine because it gives you a more well-rounded person but I don't just want to see personal stuff because that doesn't give me any idea of who you are in business and whether we can actually work together 

SAMIA: Oh cool that's so cool Teresa thank you for sharing that... and you know one of the questions that's coming to my mind now is can you talk a little bit more about what are some of the foundational pieces that you need to have in place for your business before you even begin to think about growing it 

TERESA: You know that is a really great question because a lot of people skip the foundation it's the boring stuff right I equate it to building a house right are you gonna go watch the foundation dry on your new house probably not but you're going to go when they build it and they paint the walls and they put in the fixtures and people want to play with all that fun stuff without ever having a solid foundation and sales starts with a solid foundation right because if not let's say you say yes Teresa I want to hire you but I don't have any kind of foundation that it's going to fall apart and you're going to be able to tell so really the foundational pieces number one above and beyond anything else is to... really identify your niche like have a really clear crystal clear picture of who that person is because that will tell you if you have the right people around you it will give you information on what you're going to say so very very clear and I train on this um very clearly So just real quick I don't want to take a lot of time on this but here's how you do it right you have one who and one what one person one solution right and then you put those together and I say if you can put them together in 12 words or less you have a really clear niche so think about that who's your who then you go and find them right they're cold leads you go tap them on the shoulder and you start to build your audience of these really juicy ideal clients then you engage with them just like we were talking about you start to talk back and forth you warm them up you give them great content you can't miss this piece because this is you speaking this is like you're on a stage giving information right and you're drawing them in and then you continue the conversation to where you can get them to a point of collaboration and so yes you do need those foundational pieces you need to move through the process because you can't get a hot lead until you get a cold lead... a cold lead becomes a hot lead they don't usually fall in your lap now sometimes you do you might get a referral and they're like great I want to work with you that's very rare you usually have to hunt your own cold leads and move them into the hot and there's a process for doing that 

SAMIA: Yeah thank you for sharing that and you know I love what you said about you need to have clarity on both the who you're helping and what you're helping them with I know like when I first got started I was very clear about the what in terms of I want to help people learn how to be more happy and I know exactly how I can help you do that because I have the education and I just went through this training and certification process and how to help people learn to be happy but I wasn't that clear on the who and that was a very interesting process actually figuring that out because you know I kept coming across people who were unhappy in different aspects of their life and for different reasons and it was like at one point I was like oh you know I can I came across some what do you call it like emergency service vodkas and I was like oh my gosh they're really super stressed out they can need help and then I connect start connecting with some people working in the police force and I was like oh my gosh they're totally stressed out and usually no one thinking about how to help them take care of their mental health and be happy but you know they're a very different population and having very different challenges then other emergency service workers who are like manning hotlines and you know things like that and then there were like all these other categories of people and I think you know it did take a little bit of time for me... and for me I just had to sort of experiment myself through that process to figure out who I really had the best fit with but do you have any tips for making that process a little bit quicker like how do I how does someone figure out beyond experimenting who their ideal client might be 

TERESA: So you're who is critical because when you say I help people people is not a who that's everybody on the planet 

SAMIA: Yeah 

TERESA: And so first of all you have to keep in mind the niche is for marketing you can work with whoever you want the niche narrows your marketing so you can start to gather like people and speak to them so you're not... it's not written in stone and you haven't defined yourself by this it gives you a way to market your business first of allSo start to now here's what I teach so write down a list of all of the possible who's women women 50 plus women's school teachers whatever they are and then on the other side of the paper write down all your solutions all the results that you get right what do you get when when I'm happy what result is that right so you write all those down and then you start to cross match them and figure out which feels the best like women 50 plus who are empty nesters who really want to find joy in their own company right that's a great who for happiness now is that the only person you're going to work with no but if you can market to that group you can really increase your business chances of success a lot and I say usually keep in a niche for at least 60 to 90 days because it takes time to build your reputation within that and then if you change it alter it a little bit right don't alter it a lot but alter it a little bit and that's how you experiment but you get that one and you go forward now I always say if you have a lot of results that you offer and you have a lot of solutions pick the one that is most most relevant to that group... so you can do research you can go into groups and listen to what they're talking about and what's the thing that they complain about the most right what is the hardest thing for them... I go into business groups and and nailing your niche that's a hard thing for a lot of people so I talk about that a lot because most people want help in doing that so find the thing that they're complaining about because once you nail that you can coach them on everything right if you find the one thing that's keeping them from being happy the worst then you can work on all the rest with them so that's what I would recommend.... but also when you pick your who make sure there's enough people in your who to make a business right don't get so narrow that you don't have enough people to reach then you're just going to struggle so make sure it's as narrow as you can get it but make sure there's still people there and always with your who always with your niche you want to include people who are ready to invest in themselves or their business you want people who are ready to spend money to get to the next level to get to their next dream to get to wherever they want to be because there are a lot of people out there that'll fit your niche but they don't have any money well and that's fine I provide resources for those people for sure I don't leave them high and dry but I don't work with them because I'm just not a non-profit I'll help them get there but but if you want to work with me you have to invest something too I'm going to invest my time energy and experience and you're going to invest your money it's a trait 

SAMIA: Yeah that makes a lot of sense and you know I just keep thinking of more questions every time you share something...

TERESA: That's usually what happens 

SAMIA: Yeah exactly... so the question that just falls into my mind I remember again this was going back to when I was starting my coaching process and you know talking about focusing on people who are ready to invest and you know have that that kind of professional relationship with you the number one question that I had in my mind and a lot of my fellow coaches trainers healers that I that you know we were in it together we were like where do we find these people 

TERESA: Right right… okay so you start you the best place to start is social media groups now you can find podcasts that have a lot of your audience you can find but social media groups will have groups of people that are within your a wide range right but your content really brings in the people that you want they are out there and if you write your content as if you are giving it away free you attract free people but if you write your content with value and show you have a value because here's the thing if I find something that I want to pay for it right I want to pay for it and so I am happy to trade my money for that service that I want the second piece is and I love this saying the transformation starts with the transaction people don't start to change until they invest in it right so the programs I've invested the most money in I work like a dog like I am going to get everything out of it that I can because I have invested in it and so give your clients the opportunity to do that give your I clients here opportunity for massive transformation by giving you some money that makes them hurt a little bit makes them want to get there makes them move they're out there but you have to position yourself as somebody who's worth has the value and worth paying for this service and that takes time and it's hard to do that's a little bit more of an aggressive sales move but it's not because if you help the people who are motivated they're going to help the people they're motivated to help so it's a ripple effect right if I help you and you help all the people you help and then they help all it's a beautiful thing if you help people are not motivated that are just gathering information then it goes nowhere it goes nowhere I say that free and low-cost courses are informational high-ticket courses are transformational depends on what you want and you just look for the people who are ready for the transformation 

SAMIA: Yeah nice and this is probably going to be the last question I ask for right now only not that I don't have more questions but just to you know keep my eye on the clock and so forth... can you give an example of because you mentioned there's a difference between like writing a post like you're giving away all free stuff versus writing a post showing your value can you just give an example of what a post where of those two what those two different posts might look like 

TERESA: Sure and I could give it from my own perspective like I would have to work with you longer to give it from a happiness perspective obviously but from my own perspective So when I'm just sharing information when I just want to give free information for and these are for like barely warm leads right you have to give them free information for them to get to know like and trust you we all know that phrase so that information would be something like when we're talking about a niche I would explain how to do that one person one one solution right now you could do that on your own but if you had me there to help you it would go much quicker but what would I do... so that would just be a free one but now if I do a value post then I would go on to say okay now what do you do you found them what do you do with them it's not enough just to know who they are if you work with me then I'll show you where to find them how to engage with them how to write content and actually collaborate with them...So I offer up you know book a call with me and we'll talk about where your business is going so you actually put a call to action on it for the right people who say okay I want all of those things now the people who just want to find their niche I've given them a little piece of something they're good to go but for the rest of them that are eager to say yes I want my business to start moving now versus in six months or a year that's how you write the post if you're ready to get started now right I'm the person that you should call that does that make sense 

SAMIA: Yes it makes sense that was I think a really excellent example... Thank you so much Teresa

TERESA: Your welcome 

SAMIA: I had just so much fun talking with you 

TERESA: Oh good I love to talk about this stuff I'm a little bit of a sales nerd so I love to talk about this stuff so this was fun for me too

SAMIA: Oh thank you thank you... any last words how can people get in touch with you or about anything else that you want to say 

TERESA: Sure you know what find me on Facebook I'm on Facebook it's Teresa Paul and you can see my name there on the screen just find me on Facebook either send me a message or send me a friend request and just let me know you watch this and you have some questions and I'm happy to talk about this I'm happy to you know I frequently get on the call and I talk about 90-day plans with people tell me about your business tell me where you want to be in 90 days and let's set some milestones pretty simple stuff now that's an informational call right not a transformational one you then have to go do the work yourself but I'm happy to do that and get you started down that road for sure but I do want to say that sales is imperative to your business if it's a business you have to reach out to people you have to have some sort of a plan but you can find one that's comfortable for you... you don't have to use the standard plans it's very easy to find one that's comfortable for you but if you don't market and you don't use sales it's a hobby it's not a business because nobody's going to find you... So some way somehow find some help for somebody to say okay how could you do this that is nurturing and warm and yummy for you and doesn't feel like you're out there trying to make people buy something they don't want because they won't they won't buy from you if they don't want to... honest you know that if you've tried to build a business you know people will say no it's not out of the vocabulary so yes reach out start talking to people and see what happens 

SAMIA: Yay awesome thank you again....

TERESA: You're welcome 

SAMIA: …on that wonderful wonderful uplifting note we are going to wrap up for today and just so all of you our dear listeners know I will go ahead and add Teresa's link specifically in the show notes so it'll be really easy for you to find her so check out the show notes so you know how to connect with Teresa... also drop in my links and if you want to get in touch with me and until we connect next time I just wish you lots and lots of peace and joy