Make Marketing Suck Less

Dr. Michelle Mazur (00:00): I love sales. I know most people don't feel this way about making sales and, heck, it took me years to feel like this about having sales conversations, but now, I love the opportunity to meet someone new, talk about their business and where their business is going. Then I get to help them decide if messaging is the right next step for them.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (00:30): The vast majority of the people I talk to listen to the show, hi there, or they've read the 3 Word Rebellion book, and they come to the call prepared to work with me. They understand my process and what it does for their business. The big reason that I love sales so much is that I know exactly what I'm going to say on that call. I feel confident, I'm in my zone of genius. What are the pieces of messaging that you need to have in place in order to have a more effective sales process? Well, that's exactly what we're going to talk about on today's episode, so let's dive in.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (01:30): You're listening to The Rebel Uprising Podcast. This podcast is dedicated to helping passionate business owners become recognized leaders who make more money and impact the world by turning their messy, complicated ideas into thriving thought leadership businesses. I'm your host, Dr. Michelle Mazur, and I'll be your no BS guide in the art of building a business that gets noticed. Each week, I share strategies, tools and insights on how to turn your complicated ideas into great messaging and solid business structures. Are you ready to create an uprising in your industry? Let's do this.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (02:12): Meet Cassie Christopher. She is a registered dietician and a straight-up expert in emotional eating. After you listen to the show, I encourage you to go check out Cassie's work and her messaging at cassiechristopher.net. Now, Cassie was a bit different from most of my clients. Most of my clients rely on word-of-mouth marketing. They really struggle to get leads and are dependent on referrals to find new work. They often find the people they get from their marketing aren't actually prepared to work with them. But Cassie, well, she got tons of leads. She was killing it at guest blogging and that was generating traffic and new leads all the time. The problem is that these leads would get on sales calls, they were not at all prepared to work with her. Does any of that sound familiar? They were unclear on what she does and how she does it, she could not convert them into clients.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (03:28): Cassie told me, "The biggest thing I used to talk about was emotional eating, but most of my clients didn't even realize they were emotional eaters until we were working together. Talk about ineffective messaging. I also realized that I was speaking at an expert level most of the time." Imagine that you jump on a sales conversation thinking you're going to hire a dietician, and here's someone wanting to talk to you about emotional eating and it's a problem that you haven't identified with. That was the disconnect.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (04:09): After we worked on clarifying her message, Cassie emailed me and told me, "I recently had a Sixty and Me article lead not only to a lot of sales, but to people understanding what I do. They booked sales calls with me from the article and reading my website alone." Plus, when those people got on the call, they were ready to work with her. Yay, messaging.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (04:36): What are the pieces of messaging that we put into place that helped Cassie and could help you with your own sales process? The first piece was speaking the language of the customer. As Cassie mentioned, when we first started working together, she was speaking the language of the expert. She talked about emotional eating, cortisol levels and hormonal imbalances. The problem was that disconnect, her people didn't realize that they were emotional eaters, they hadn't made that connection of using food to numb or sometimes even feel something. They didn't know what cortisol was or if their levels were sky high. That message, that initial brush with her work, the message wasn't landing because it sounded way too clinical and it also sounded like a problem that they didn't need help with.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (05:40): When we dug into what her clients were actually saying and translated that into a key message, they told her time and time again what she should say. She should say, "You know exactly what you should be doing when it comes to food, but you're frustrated because you can't muster the willpower and the self-control you feel you need." This was actually the core problem. They were blaming themselves for lack of self control, lack of willpower. When Cassie changed that message, her right clients saw themselves in this message. They were like, "Yes, I have been to a dietician before. I have done all of the things. I know what to do, I can't do it. When they read that and they feel like, "Oh, she gets me," they go to her website and book a call, because you want your prospective clients to feel seen and heard.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (06:48): Here's my reflection point for you. Where in your messaging are you speaking like an expert versus speaking the language of your client? Identify those spots and then dive in to that client language, because that will make your sales process more effective and get people ready to work with you.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (07:19): The second piece of her messaging that we worked on was creating a message that stands out. Cassie is a registered dietician, so many of her clients seek her out because they want to lose weight, but every dietician and their mother talks about weight loss and Cassie knew her work was so much more than a number on a scale. She knew that the clients who worked with her, yes, lost some weight, but left with a changed relationship with food and their body. How could we capture the real result of her work and create a message that allows her to stand out?

Dr. Michelle Mazur (08:03): This is where the three word rebellion process came in. She did the free writing, and when I analyzed what she wrote and did my deep dive into it, there was one theme that kept coming up, building a trusting relationship, that they really wanted the courage to trust themselves around food, the courage to trust that food wasn't the enemy, the courage to trust their body, the courage to trust that they could actually mindfully indulge. It was really all about trust, self-trust, so the courage to trust became her three word rebellion because that was the results people were seeking and getting from her work. The cool part, this message was unlike any other out there in her industry, and yet, it still spoke to that emotional side of eating because her perspective clients want to cultivate that courage to trust and let the weight loss be the side effect of that work.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (09:19): Reflection point. Does your message convey the big result or change your work creates or is it stuck in the solution? I highly recommend that you go back and review the episode on results, not solutions. Additionally, you can always revisit the 3 Word Rebellion book or get the free audio workshop at 3wordrebellion.com and start creating that message that really conveys the change you create for your clients.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (10:00): Hey, friend. This summer, I'm going to be doing a low-cost, three-part virtual workshop called Finally Nail Your Message. Harness the power of your words to explain what the heck you do and why it matters to the people who need to hire you. This workshop will give you the messaging essentials so you can be specific enough to attract prospective clients while also communicating what it is you do and how it helps them and why they need it. Interested? Get on the waiting list at drmichellemazur.com/nail, that's drmichellemazur.com/nail, and I'll let you know as soon as the workshop opens. Now, back to the show.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (10:52): All right, piece number three is a why buy statement. Like most people, Cassie was missing this piece of her messaging. A why buy statement is the most compelling reason a person should work with you. That reason should be something that is in your control. All right, side rant, you might have heard me talk about this on Duped before, but in online business, there are so many program promises that over promise and under deliver. They say things like, "Exponentially increase your impact and income," or, "Scale your business without burnout." Here's the deal, increasing impact and income and doing something without burnout is not actually in the control of the person who is delivering the program. Not only that, it doesn't really tell us anything about what the program actually does, right? I am not a fan of these vague big promises that are completely out of control of the person delivering the program.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (12:08): A why buy statement is the most compelling reason people should work with you that's also in your control. For example, my why buy statement is, "Powerfully and persuasively communicate the value your business creates, whether you're talking to one person or a million." That's it. I know 100% that I can deliver on that. For Cassie, hers was, "To create a supportive relationship with food, your body and your health so you can eat with joy instead of eating to seek joy."

Dr. Michelle Mazur (12:48): Now, a little behind the scenes here, that first part of her why buy statement was super easy to create, "Create a supportive relationship with food, your body and your health," that is essentially what she does in her program, but what was the result of doing that she felt comfortable promising? We found that exact wording, "So you can eat with joy instead of eating to seek joy," we found it in a testimonial.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (13:19): Once you have your why buy statement, this is one of the most versatile pieces of messaging and most used pieces of messaging outside of your three word rebellion, because you will use it on your website, you will use it during sales conversations, you will use it during podcast interviews, when you create content, because it's your stake in the ground of what your work delivers on.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (13:47): A reflection point. What can you absolutely promise people? Now, we're also going to be working on this in the workshop, Finally Nail Your Message, so be sure you're on the waiting list for that when that goes live, at drmichellemazur.com/nail.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (14:04): All right, the final piece is a framework, a methodology or structure. Now, Cassie already had this in place. I believe we refined it a little bit, but she had a structure that she was typically using people, and it consisted of four pillars that she was touching on during her sessions with clients, calming the nervous system, self-compassion, listening to the body, and metabolism boosting. We called this the Courage to Trust Method.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (14:42): But why do you need a framework, a methodology or a structure for your work? How does it make your sales process more effective? I always tell people that structure breeds trust and it enhances your credibility with prospective clients, because when you are pitching your program or writing your sales page, you're basically saying, "I have a structure, a process, that I am going to be walking you through, that I am your guide through." It reduces their uncertainty that they don't know what they're going to be doing in the program and they don't know what they're going to get from it.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (15:23): This framework and methodology, it really works in conjunction with your why buy statement. Your why buy statement is the lead in for your framework. I can say, "During the Three Word Rebellion Messaging intensive, we're going to powerfully communicate the value your business creates, whether you're talking to one person or a million. The way we do that is we move through five phases." I've talked about these five phases so often in sales conversations that my husband, who overhears my sales conversations, could probably deliver it for me because he knows it so well.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (16:05): Now you might be wondering, "Well, what if my work is bespoke or it's custom?" You can still have a structure for your work. It might be at a really high level, like, "Oh, we're going to start with an assessment, and then we're going to figure out what your goals are, and then each session deep dives on those." It can be this very high-level structure. It doesn't have to be like mine, where I have five concrete phases that I'm moving people through.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (16:32): The other question I often get is, "Well, what if my work is non-linear?" That's cool. You can still have a structure, you can still have a methodology, a framework. You just explain to people that you dip in and out of each of these pillars of the framework. Most people have a framework that is non-linear, so don't let yourself think, "Oh, well, I can't really have structure because my work, I'm dipping in and out of all of these different tools that I have." That's fine, but still give it structure, give it pillars, give it phases, something to give that structure for people to hang onto so they know what they're getting from working with you. The final reflection point, how can you create a process or a structure that allows you to easily communicate what you do over and over again?

Dr. Michelle Mazur (17:28): My final thought for you, clarity helps with conversion and its confidence boosting. Knowing what to say and knowing that people get it gives you a huge boost in your confidence, and that confidence can make you fall in love with your sales calls. What I've seen from Cassie is that her conversion rate is much improved since we worked together, but I see a difference in her confidence when she talks about her work. Cassie and I are in a group together, and every time she posts about her work there is this level of confidence she has, that she knows what she's talking about, that it is clearly communicated, and that it is effective. Your clients will feel that confidence during your sales process. The clearer you are on your message, the more confidence you'll have, the more your potential clients will feel seen, heard and want to buy from you.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (18:38): Thank you for listening all the way to the end of the show. Your support means the world to me. Did you know The Rebel Uprising Podcast has a quiz that can help you pinpoint the number one way to build an audience of super fans while staying true to your unique personality? We do, and it's called What's Your Rebel Roadmap to Exponential Impact and Influence. You can take it at therebelquiz.com.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (19:01): If you're loving the podcast, do us a favor, rate and leave us a quick five star review wherever you listen to your podcasts. It helps more people like you find the show. Until next week, remember, your ideas matter. Now, get back out there and cause an uprising in your industry. You've got this.