Aaron Miller is going to share with you the secret to winning almost every sale and why this is so successful. He began sales management when he was 17 years old. Working through school and operation management he was top of his class in relationship cultivation, sales, and operational strategy. Even after becoming a shining star in school, he became one in the work world as well.Aaron was a rising star who quickly moved up from working as a phone agent, to Team Leader, to Operations Manager, and ultimately to Vendor Manager, all in less than a year.” says a Business Development Executive.
Like most of us, Aaron had a lot of anxiety talking to people and learning how to stay confident, especially when selling something. However, he soon realized how to communicate and connect with people. Leading him to the tactic that has made him so successful in sales. Listen in as he shares his story and this simple method to make the sales you want to keep.
Biggest Takeaways You Don’t Want To Miss:
The Secret to Winning Sales
Why did they come to you in the first place? Where are they in their mental and emotional state? Provide empathy and a solution no matter how basic or how in-depth they go when they first reach out, meet them where they are at. They reached out to you so connect with them and find out how you can help. You can start by saying something like “I am so glad I got ahold of you today because I want to help solve this for you” or “I am so glad to hear from you today.”
How to Get Through the Psychology of Talking to Clients
Be casual and recognize that they called you. Talk to them like you would friends and family not like you are trying to sell to them. This is a big part of the secret to winning almost every sale. Don’t pry from them just have a conversation. Remember why you started your business in the first place and the passion you have for your business, this will give you more confidence
What Do You Do If They Reached Out Via Email, Social Media, or Text
Try to get them scheduled for a phone call and connect with them. Show them it can be easy and convenient and that you have availability for them. Help them make the decision to go with you. Try even sending an audio or video clip of you responding so they can see you and feel your energy, leaving more of an impact on them.
Show Highlights
- What is “meeting people where they are at?” [8:40]
- How to find out where people are at when they don’t tell us [16:23]
- How to connect with people through social media, email, and text [25:50]
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Transcript:
Here comes episode number 263 of Bella in Your Business. Hi there, I’m Bella Vasta from Jump Consulting. You might know me from CBS, NBC, Fox, Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, or maybe you’ve seen me speak on stage or read my book, The Four Dogs That Every Business Owner Needs. In any case, get ready because you’re about to get your hashtag Bella Butt Kickin’ in this next episode of Bella in Your Business.
So what do you say? Let’s get ready and jump. Welcome everybody to another episode of Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, your host. And today I’ve got something unique for you, something that you should have made a while ago. Guys, I’ve been on these awesome complimentary coaching sessions with those of you who I haven’t met yet, and we’ve been meeting on Instagram, we’ve been meeting on Facebook. I always like to offer you a complimentary session to solve one problem that you might have.
And it comes up a lot where people are trying to solve problems, but they’re trying to solve them in the minds of like, as if they were the only pet sitter and not like as if they were the boss in charge, as I like to call it, or working with a bunch of staff. Now with this mindset, if you are a solo sitter and you have no desire to ever have anyone working for you and it works out fine for you, this podcast is not for you. If you are someone who does not ever want to hire someone, who doesn’t trust people, someone who does not want to get out of their comfort zone and get a little bit uncomfortable, this podcast is not for you. You should go ahead and skip forward to the next one.
But this podcast is for those people who are looking to really figure out why can’t I actually scale. I’ve tried to hire people, it hasn’t worked out, or I’ve hired people, but now I’m more busier than ever doing stuff and I just can’t seem to get out of the rat race. This podcast is for you and I want to talk about that today. So your mindset is huge. And one thing I always love to do is to kind of blow things up. Whenever I have a problem or challenge, I like to get it microscopic and then as big as I possibly can, right? Like go to two different extremes. And so for this one, I want you to think about hotels like Marriott and Hyatt and the Hilton, right? Do you think that Mr. Marriott or Mr. Hilton are like at the front desk checking in customers? No. Did they do that when they first started? Sure. But are they doing that now? No, they’re not. And there’s a reason for that. And there’s a reason why they’ve been able to grow such a conglomerate.
Now, Bella, I don’t want to grow my business that big. That’s fine, you guys. Totally fine. But just stay with me here on this point. You really have to think about a couple of things. The very first thing is everything that you’re doing, something that anybody else can do. So I want you to kind of look at the tasks that you’re doing every day and I want you to start getting upset. I want you to get upset when you’re doing something that someone else could actually do for you or if you’re doing something over and over again because there’s no reason why you should be doing something over and over again.
If it’s a process, then put it on a process and hand it off to someone else to do it. You have to constantly be putting yourself out of a job. That’s what we call it. And in order to do that, you gotta make sure that it’s written down. Now, you’ve heard me talk about all these words like handbook, a manual, standard operating procedures, the SOPs, workflows, like all these buzzwords, right? But basically, at the bottom line, is get it out of your head and on paper. And one of my biggest tips, and I won’t go too far into it, but I tell people this a lot when I coach them, is that if you feel like you can’t sit down and write it out, that’s fine. It’s actually kind of difficult, right? But the next time you’re about to do something online, go ahead and use a Loom, L-O-O-M. It’s an extension that records your computer and your pretty little face in the corner, if you allow it.
And, you know, just start taking videos, short videos, under three minutes, of the things that you’re doing. And put them in a file. And then find someone to watch those videos and then actually write out the steps that you’re doing. But you have to get things written down because there’s no way that you can ever actually grow and scale your business if it’s all in your head. Nothing can last when it’s in your head or in your gut. You know, hiring people say they do it on their gut and you know, training people like, are like, “Hey, come shadow me for three days. I’m going to tell you everything I know.” And you’re expected to like remember it. No, it’s not going to work.
The other thing that I want you to think about is are there milestones and checkpoints? So if you’re going to go from a solo mentality to like scaling your business, you need to be able to like give them checkpoints and you need to actually give them wins. So the checkpoints serve two purposes or milestones, if you will. So maybe you have a really big task and you break it up into four different sections. Each one of those sections, you’re going to be able to either correct and continue if they’re not doing it correctly, or you’re going to be able to cheer them on and give them confidence, which is going to grow bigger and bigger and it’s going to be one of the best assets ever.
Speaking of assets, remember that your staff is the biggest asset you have in your pet sitting and dog walking company. This is not a brick and mortar place where we have equipment. Your employees are those assets. So this is how you change the oil on it or you get the WD-40 and get it greased up, you know, so that it’s in optimum working condition. Another thing I want you to think about is, is it simple? Is the way that you run your business simple? Is it easy to remember? I’ll give you an example. So many of you guys have the most convoluted cancellation policy that you cannot even remember it or recite it in one breath.
Okay. As an example, here’s what I mean by a simple one. This is what I used to have six years ago when I sold my business. Okay. It was if you cancel within two weeks for day visits or four weeks for overnight, you are responsible for half the total invoice. That’s it. There’s no two weeks, four weeks, 48 hours, 24 hours, blah, blah, blah. For a couple of reasons. One, when you pass it off to someone, you’re gonna end up paying them five hours of work when it really could have been done in like a half hour. Don’t do that. Make sure that your processes are straightforward and simple and truly are created because they tie into what your overall goals are for the business.
So don’t ever negate that. So, so far I’ve been talking about is it written down? Are there milestones or checkpoints? Is it simple? Is it easy to remember? This is all the stuff that you have to start thinking about. Your mindset needs to shift when you go from a solo sitter or you’re a solo sitter mentality running with three to five employees like I’ve seen. And it’s just a hot mess. It’s going to implode on yourself if you do not shift your mindset to a scaling mindset. All right, we’re going to keep going on because as you shift to this mindset and you put yourself out of a job, you are now going to be able to work on revenue-generating projects and not be involved in the mundane tasks.
Guys, this is so important. I want you to really be cognizant of what you’re doing today. What are you doing? Are you doing something that you could easily hire someone else to do? Or are you doing something that is actually helping to grow the business? I don’t mean going out and doing dog walks and pet sits. That’s not growing the business. That’s just keeping it alive. I’m talking about shaking hands and doing collaborations and getting your name out there and getting maybe sponsorships or partnerships or collaborations. That kind of stuff is going to help grow and scale your business because it’s going to get even more eyeballs on your business.
Another thing too is do you have an organizational chart? We don’t talk about this enough, but it’s very important that you have this organizational chart so you understand how does the proverbial and earmuffs, if there’s any kids listening right now, I’m warning you now—how does shit fall downhill? Okay. Because it’s always going to go downhill. So how does this work? Like who reports to who? And is it literally you to one person and then that one person to everybody else? Because that’s going to be overwhelming. Of course, at first you’re going to need that or maybe it’s you and then everybody else. But eventually you have to give some thought into an organizational structure, a hierarchy of responsibilities.
That is the only way that your business is going to be able to grow from a solo mentality to a scaling type of a business. Some other examples: do you have enough money to pay yourself and pay the business and not just your sitters? So something else that happens here is that, you know, when we’re first doing it solo, it’s just us. And then when we get employees, like we’re really excited that they’re going to work for us and they’re actually like, you know, doing jobs and like, we’re so relieved that we basically give away the whole house. Like don’t do that, okay? You have to make sure that your margins are going to support a scaling business.
That means that first you pay yourself. Dare I say that you pay yourself? Yeah, I believe every jumper should not only pay themselves, but also be paying themselves enough so they can also save every single month too. That’s a whole other story for another time. The second thing that you need to do and in the hierarchy, I believe, is pay the business. The business needs money to work on, to run on. You cannot be held hostage in a business because you don’t have money to spend on things. So first you need to pay yourself, then you need to pay the business, and then you pay your staff, okay?
And now when I say that, I don’t mean to say that to say like, don’t have money to pay the staff. I’m just saying that like you have to know your numbers and those are the three critical areas. Now I have a pricing structure and strategy class that goes through it all thick and thin on how to like market it, how to sell it, the financials of it, all of it, and gives you spreadsheets. So go ahead and check out the website if you’re interested in that—jumpconsulting.net. Now some examples of going from that solo mentality to a scaling mentality are the billing processes, the booking processes, the communication policies.
Do they support a big business or a small business? What do I mean by that? I just touched on billing a second ago and it was, your billing system really smooth and easy and the way that you collect and the way that you also go after invoices that maybe are delinquent. Okay. What about your booking policy? Does everything have to come through you or come through the office? If the answer is yes, then we need to change our mind to more of a scaling and we need to shift that around because that is not going to happen. Like you cannot be someone’s personal concierge booking everything all the time. And the same thing goes for communication policies. Communication is a big old mess in so many businesses causing so much stress and extra time and work and confusion that that really has to be streamlined and it has to be articulated for when you do the journals in the software systems, when you text, when you call, when you email.
For both sitters and clients, guys, this is so hugely important. And the very last thing we’re going to leave you with here today is the why are you doing this? The best reason that you should have in your mind for scaling your business should be to sell it. Now, remember I said at the beginning of the podcast, you gotta get uncomfortable. For any of you guys who just had a knee-jerk reaction to that or think that you’re going to give this business to your son or your daughter or hand it off to a staff member or a partner, please don’t fool yourself. Do you know how often that actually comes true? Not a lot. Life happens.
And just this month, I had one gal who moved cross country because her husband got a job offer she couldn’t refuse. I had another person who is in her 60s and she just said, you know what, I’m done. I’m done, I’m done, I’m done. I need to spend the next two years building this business so I can sell it as an asset. This is my nest egg. I didn’t have a 401k. I had a couple of businesses before. I had nothing to show for them. You guys never know when life situations are going to happen.
And one of the best things that ever happened to me is that when I thought I was just all hot shit, I actually was like, oh, I’m going to sell my business. And this was like two or three years before I actually did. And I had a broker sit me down and give me a healthy dose of reality. And I realized that everything I thought my business was really didn’t matter except for what was in my P&L and what I could actually like prove in that respect. And so that drastically changed the trajectory of my business and made it in such a way that it was so sellable.
Another way to think about this is you’re building a house right now and this house is not going to be yours forever. You’re not taking it to the grave. You’re not. You can’t. And so eventually you will be parting ways with this business. And I encourage you to think about it as it is a gift that you are building right now. It is not yours. It is not yours and it is not your identity. So stop thinking that you are the most important thing in it because you’re not. You have to build this business as if you are building it for someone else one day. And I’m telling you, I’m telling you, okay, it’s the best advice I could give you when you’re trying to grow and scale your business.
So you don’t know when you’re going to want to sell it and the chances are pretty high of you wanting to sell it. It just breaks my heart when people come to me. I had a call this week and she was in California, and she has some medical problems. She has so much medical problems that she was actually removed from the business and she had her new business manager who she just hired call me. And I was straight up and I felt bad like being the deliverer of bad news. They don’t even have P&Ls or like really good QuickBooks. They’re trying to get all that in order. They also have independent contractors which is a major liability in California.
And anytime anyone ever calls me and asks me, should I buy this business? And there’s ICs, I say, hell no. And it was just, you know, they didn’t have any systems and procedures because they had independent contractors. Of course they didn’t have any training manuals or anything. It’s too much of a liability, you know, and I just felt so bad because this girl had built such a business and there’s going to be a lot of work that she’s going to have to do at least a year if she actually wants to sell it.
So I really want you guys to think about stuff. If we’ve never talked before, if you’re not in the Mastermind—well, if you’re in the Mastermind, you kind of already know this because we’re always in the habit of putting ourselves out of jobs in order to grow and scale our business. We have a lot of people that are constantly doing that. It’s so motivating and awesome. But if you are listening to this and you and I have never talked before, I would love to talk to you.
So I want you to reach out to me. You can ask me for the link or go to calendly.com forward slash Bella Vasta. You’re going to see one that says “solve one problem,” and I want you to take a look there and book a call with me. This is for all first-timers and it’s a 15-minute call and we can do one thing. And I would love to talk to you and see how we can help solve something for you.
So I hope this has given you some good food for thought. This podcast is definitely for anyone who is just stuck in that solo mentality. These are some things that you need to be thinking about in order to get out of that and scale your business. You guys remember that when life gets you down, always keep jumping.
So what did you think? Did you love this episode? I sure hope you did because I put a lot of love into this for you. And the best way you can show me that is by going to iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or wherever you listen to your podcast and go ahead and leave a review. I just might read it on the next episode. I also want to remind you that when life gets you down, remember to always keep jumping. Thanks for listening.