A Step by Step Guide to Selling Through Relationships, Not Salesy Tactics with Nikki Rausch: Episode 212
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Meet our Guest: Nikki Rausch
Nikki Rausch integrates her 25+ years of experience selling to such prestigious organizations as The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Hewlett-Packard, and NASA, sharing with her clients the same approaches that led to her shattering sales records in her industry and receiving multiple “top producer” awards along the way.
A business degree from the University of Washington and her master certification in Neuro-Linguistic Programming mesh perfectly to create a powerful foundation upon which Nikki built tremendous sales skills and now provides enormous benefits for her clients.
Nikki has received numerous sales awards, shattered sales records across industries, and was featured in Female Entrepreneur Magazine. A sought-after speaker, she regularly shares the results of success through illuminating keynote addresses and business-changing workshops. Her robust Sales Maven Society ignites game-changing outcomes for clients. Many of whom have also reaped the benefits of her immersive VIP consultations.
Nikki’s three popular books are available on Amazon. And her podcast, Sales Maven, can be found on your favorite podcast platform.
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PODCAST TRANSCRIPT
DR. DANIELLE: Okay. So hello everyone. Hopefully by now you know me, I am Danielle Eaton and been only doing this podcast for what, six years now? I am here today with a new guest to the show. Her name is Nikki Rausch and Nikki has a program that I’ve heard a lot of amazing things about called Sales Maven. So yes, we’re going to be talking about sales and no, you should not run away. Yes, you should stick with us. And by the end of this episode, I think that you’ll understand why. So Nikki, I’m going to let you introduce yourself and share a bit more about who you are, what you do, and we’ll take it from there.
MEET NIKKI
NIKKI: Well, thank you for having me and hi to anybody watching, I’m Nikki Rausch, my company is Sales Maven, and I am a Sales Specialist Expert. And I focus on the sales conversation because I find that a lot of times you can get as many new potential prospects into your business as you want. But if you don’t know how to have that sales conversation, if you’re not sure what to say and how to say it and move somebody through the process to get to the place where you actually initiate the ask for the sale, you oftentimes lose out on working with some of your best clients. So I teach the sales conversation, how to do a step by step approach, I call it the selling staircase, it’s a five step approach to sales, and the objective is to make it much easier for you as the seller, and also much easier for the prospective client so that they know what to do when, and it’s just very simple. It’s built on relationship, it’s all about rapport, and the objective is again to make it really easy so that you earn more business.
DR. DANIELLE: Nikki, I’m assuming that you didn’t come out of the womb an expert in sales. So tell me more about how you became the expert in sales. What was your path to get here?
NIKKI: Okay. So I have a pretty extensive background in sales. I’ve been in sales for over twenty-five years and I spent the majority of my career in technology sales. I got my first professional sales job through a college project. I never intended to be a salesperson. And frankly, when you think of a traditional salesperson, a lot of times you think of somebody who’s really outgoing, like that extrovert personality, like the biggest personality in the room. That is not me. I more fall towards the introverted side, I can be quite shy, and yet I really do love the idea of being of service to somebody. And I love conversation. I love learning about people and that is really kind of what became kind of my secret sauce in my own sales career and in my own success. And along the way, I started studying neuro-linguistic programming. And if that’s a new term to anybody listening or watching, it’s essentially the study of communication. So the way we process information in our brains is the neural piece. Linguistics is the language. How do you speak to others also? So what kind of internal dialogue do you have going on? And then the programming part of NLP is about habits and patterns. And when you understand how you show up in a conversation and you can start to pick up cues of how somebody else shows up in the conversation, you can add a little bit of flexibility to your behavior, to put that person at ease. And when somebody’s at ease with you, it makes the sales process much easier, frankly. I know many people have probably heard this before – people buy from people they know, like, and trust, but oftentimes where people get stuck is how do you create that know, like, and trust? So that’s really kind of what became my secret sauce in sales. And after having this really successful career in technology, I decided there needed to be something more fulfilling in my life, and I got really curious about that. I left my corporate job and I started working for my NLP teacher. And that’s really when I started meeting entrepreneurs. And I was so fascinated by coming from this corporate world to this world of meeting really amazing entrepreneurs who had that, like servant’s heart, and really wanted to make a difference and an impact in the world. And a lot of the people I was networking with were really struggling to make money in their business. And I found that it was because oftentimes they felt like the sales process was icky or scary, and they weren’t sure how to do it. And I really just kind of started helping people do it on the side just like I was doing, helping my NLP teacher grow her business, and I was starting to just kind of help some people – and they started getting really great results. Somebody pulled me aside and was like, why aren’t you teaching entrepreneurs how to sell? We need to learn this stuff. And at the time I was like, well, that seems dumb. Because who would ever pay to learn how to sell? Like, I feel like everybody knows this. It’s really obvious. Like once I teach it to you, you’re like, duh, like that’s so obvious, but it turns out here I am eight years later having Sales Maven and having the time of my life, working with the coolest entrepreneurs, making the biggest impact in the world and really teaching them this step by step process to a conversation so it’s easy.
HOW TO BRING YOUR CLIENTS CLOSER THROUGH SALES – NOT PUSH THEM AWAY
DR. DANIELLE: Yeah. There’s so much in that I can relate to, and I know that the people that listen to this podcast are mostly people who would say that they’re introverts. There are some extroverts – I hear you, and I know that you’re out there – but most of the people that this podcast are definitely introverts or they’re empaths or they’re highly sensitive people, and there are also a lot of people who are really concerned for whatever reason about what other people think about them, and they’re afraid to seem sales-y. Where did this come from? I don’t know if you know the answer to this question, but where did this notion come from that we like that we should even be afraid to be sales-y in the first place?
NIKKI: So I have an opinion about it. I don’t know if I know the answer, but I definitely have an opinion about it. And I think a lot of it is we have all been on the receiving end of somebody who is trying to do something to us that doesn’t feel good. That’s this sales piece. And this is kind of the shift that I often teach my clients, and it’s something I talk about a lot that sales actually isn’t something you’re supposed to do to somebody, it’s something you’re supposed to do with somebody. And when you start to change that conversation, you start to recognize that it isn’t about trying to manipulate somebody. And it isn’t about trying to get something over on somebody. And even though there’s a lot of sales teachers out there that will disagree with this statement that I’m about to make, but your job in the selling process is not to change anybody’s mind. It’s not to convince somebody to hire you. That’s not your job. Your job is to understand what’s going on for this person that I’m in conversation with, and do I have a potential solution for them? And can I present it in a way they’re open to hearing it? And if so, then they get to decide, do I want to buy this or not? And it isn’t about being aggressive. But so again, back to your question, I think we’ve all been on the receiving end of somebody making us feel shamed in some way that if we didn’t buy from them, like our whole life was going to fall apart or we were a bad person and you would never want to do that to somebody else if you’ve been on the receiving end of it. There’s always the bad apple out there that’s doing something just like in any of the professions of the people listening to this podcast, you’ve probably heard horror stories about somebody in your profession that has done something that kind of is bordering on ethics and integrity, and you’re like, ew. We’ve all had an experience where somebody has been aggressive or pushy or frankly gross with us and nobody wants to be that. And yet, when you can learn how to do it in this way that it’s about the conversation, I’m not here to talk at you, I’m here to talk with you, and if you’re not open to the conversation, I’m not going to force it or push it or be aggressive about it.
PUTTING RELATIONSHIP BEFORE SALESMANSHIP
DR. DANIELLE: This is a really great approach I think for a healthcare provider or health and wellness practitioner, because a lot of us see ourselves as the advocate for the patient or the clients. We work with them. There’s a notion out there that the doctor fixes the patient, and I would say that most people that listen to this podcast probably don’t agree with that philosophy that they’re a facilitator, maybe even a conduit of some kind, but that they’re working in conjunction with the patient, if nothing else with the patient’s body, right? The patient has their role and the provider has their role. And so you’re working together and that’s, in my opinion, the best case scenario. It leads to the best outcomes when you’re working together. So it’s kind of the same approach that you’re talking about here with sales. It’s like, you’re going through a process together deciding is this the right fit for you? Or is it not?
NIKKI: Yeah. When you break it down and you make it that simple, then the conversation feels good, the relationship’s intact, and even if the person declines working with you, they may actually come back later because you left them feeling really good about their interaction with you. It didn’t feel like, I mean, again, we’ve probably all been on the receiving end of having to decline working with somebody and having them be offended or, you know, treat us in some way different than just keeping that relationship intact. So with a provider that’s putting a service out there, it’s kind of like holding your hand out, and your offer kind of sits in your hand. You don’t like shove your hand down somebody’s throat, right? Like that’s not what it is, but if you hold your hand out and you put an offer in front of somebody and they get to decide yes or no, it feels really good. And if they say no, you just put your hand down. It’s not that big of a deal, and it doesn’t have to be confrontational. You don’t have to take offense, frankly, when somebody declines working with you, you don’t have to take it personally. And I think that’s the other thing that sometimes we worry about, because yes, you are being judged. Frankly, you’re being judged all the time. You’re being judged about your profession, you’re being judged about the car you drive, the neighborhood you live in, like all these things, people are making judgements. And I really teach, how can you set yourself up to make a powerful first impression? How can you set yourself up to be credible so that when people are ready for what it is that you offer, that they come to you versus anybody else?
DR. DANIELLE: Yeah. That’s beautiful. I mean, I really like the notion of keeping the door open, not burning a bridge because you were so pushy or the person felt pushed away if they said no. I’ve been in that situation where I felt pressured to make a decision, and I know for me, when I start to recognize that I’m feeling pressured to make a decision, I’m usually going to go no regardless of if I want the thing or need the thing, I’m just going to say no, because I don’t want to then later look back and go, oh, I was pressured to make that decision. So right or wrong, that was a pattern that I learned through experiences, right? Of like making a decision. And then later feeling like I made the wrong decision, and I was pressured into the decision, I shouldn’t have been pressured into the decision, I shouldn’t have let myself be pressured. Like all these things led me to, if I feel pressured, it’s a no.
NIKKI: Yeah. And then you feel bad about yourself later, right? But if somebody treats you with respect and treats you like you’re an adult, and of course you’re making your own decision and I’m just offering something to you and hey, if this isn’t the right time, or if this isn’t the right offer, you know, please know, you’re welcome to come back to me at any point when you are ready, which sometimes happens very quickly. You might go away and go, actually, you know what? I think I really do want that thing. Or I think I do want that. And then you go back to the person because they left the door open. It feels okay to go back to them. But oftentimes what happens is people slam that door and they lose the rapport. And so when the person does think about it a couple days later and go, you know, actually I do want that, they don’t go back to you. They go back to somebody, they go to somebody else who offers what it is that you offer, because there’s a lot of competition out there for any of us in any field. Doesn’t matter what you do. There’s somebody out there that provides a version of it in some way. So make sure you’re setting yourself, and this person up for success by relationship first, rapport always, and you’re just making it so easy for them to make a decision. Yes or no, and either way it’s okay.
THE FIVE-STEP SELLING STAIRCASE
DR. DANIELLE: Talk to me more about how you actually help people with sales conversations. What does that look like?
NIKKI: So I teach this approach for sales and I call it the selling staircase. It’s a five step approach. And I actually wrote my third book about this. And so if I could, I’ll just go through the steps and kind of talk through, and then ask me any questions that will be helpful for your audience here. So the first step is the introduction and the objective there is to make a powerful first impression. I kind of commented on that. There’s a lot of ways that you can do that. That can happen through social media, through your website, and also in face to face conversations with people. Or if you have office staff, they are also making a first impression for you too. So that can happen there as well. Step two, in the selling conversation is creating curiosity, this by the way is the most misstep in the selling process. People often don’t realize that it’s your job as the seller to create some curiosity so that somebody is like, Hmm, tell me more. Like, what would that look like? Or what should I do next? Right? So we have to learn how to create curiosity. And again, I can go into much detail as you want around these. Step three is the discovery process. This is oftentimes where you are actually having a live conversation with somebody, or maybe you’re communicating over DM or email depending on, or your intake form for instance. But the objective in the discovery is to find out what’s the problem? What’s the need? What’s going on for this person? So it’s about asking really good questions, the right questions I often say. Make sure that your questions lead down that path to somebody hiring you and/or helping them identify really quickly that they’re not a good fit for you, so you can just bless and release that person in the kindest way. So that’s the discovery process. Step four is the proposal. This is where you’re laying out the offer. This is where you’re making it really easy for them to go, okay, here’s my recommendation as the expert, this is what I’d recommend, actually then you move to step five, which is the close. Step five is the second most misstep in the selling process because oftentimes we get to that place where we make a proposal or we put out an offer, but we really forget to use that close language. And if you do not use close language right on the back of your offer, oftentimes people will not make a decision yes or no to hire you. And if you don’t pose the question, you oftentimes don’t earn the business. And frankly, those people miss out because they never had the opportunity to make the decision because you never issued the close language. So how I really help clients is I dig into which steps are they missing? Which steps are they struggling with? Give them strategies and techniques to either create curiosity or ask better questions in their discovery, or lay out their proposal in a way that makes more sense to the mind of the reader or the buyer. And then making sure that they’re really clear on the close language. So I work a lot with my clients around the conversation, the language, the questions to ask your email campaigns, what kind of messaging is in there? You know, are you drawing people in or are you repelling them unintentionally? But that’s what I do.
DR. DANIELLE: Yeah, for sure. I’m curious to hear more about a couple of the steps. Curiosity, building curiosity. I can tell you what I think it means when I hear you say that, and then you can tell me if I’m on the right track. So when I heard you give this step, it was the second step. If I’m not mistaken?
NIKKI: You’re perfect. Yes.
DR. DANIELLE: Okay. So building curiosity to me feels like it actually slows down the decision process, but in a good way. It like gives people some time to build more know, like, and trust with you, with your business, with what you do and to really know like, is that for me? Before they even step foot into your office or your building, or look at your website, for example. Well, maybe your website is helping to build curiosity. The slowing down is like a thing that feels good to a lot of people that listen to this podcast because they don’t then have to rush people into making a decision today.
NIKKI: Yeah. Okay. So let me comment about this or explain a little bit. As the seller, as the person who’s going through these five steps, you are not allowed to ever skip a step in the process. Now with that said, the client or the prospect can skip a step. Somebody could go to your website, look into you, call your office and make an appointment. The sale is now done, right? They can skip steps, but you can’t just randomly go up to a stranger on the street, and although this does happen to some of us, like when we’re going into the grocery store, somebody jumps out in front of us and is like, Hey, do you want to buy my thing? That’s skipping steps. And that’s where people go like what? I don’t know what’s going on? Like, why are you approaching me? Where’s it coming from? This also happens in our emails all day long. I don’t know about you, but I get a good handful or more, every single day of somebody who’s like, you don’t know me, but this is all the things about me, and this is why you should hire me. And it’s like, okay, you haven’t created any curiosity. I don’t know you. So the introduction stuff got missed. You don’t know anything about me because we haven’t done any discovery process and you’re going right in for the close. And that’s where it feels gross and icky, and where, where frankly, probably most of your listeners and your practitioners out there are like, I don’t want to be that person. I don’t want to be the person who shows up in somebody’s email saying like you should come in and you should have an appointment with me, and if you don’t, your life is going to fall apart. Like that feels gross. So you don’t get to skip steps. You creating curiosity though is super important. That allows somebody to go like, Hmm, I never thought about that. Like maybe I’d like to know more. So maybe I will call your office or maybe I will schedule a consultation call with you. Or maybe I will go and read about you on your website about your business, creating curiosity. There’s a couple ways to do it.
NIKKI: So I’ll say that I teach this concept as it’s the difference between how you call a dog and how you call a cat. Now you’re probably thinking who’s this crazy lady on my podcast? But bear with me for just a second here. So I compare it to dog calling versus cat calling because – Danielle, are you a dog or a cat lover?
DR. DANIELLE: I have three cats and a dog,
NIKKI: So, okay, so you like, ’em both. You probably call ’em differently though. If you want to get your dog’s attention, you don’t call your dog the same way you would call your three cats I’m suspecting. Usually if you want to get your dog’s attention, you’ll do this thing – like, come here, boy, come here, girl, let’s go do something great. And dogs love that kind of energy. They’re like, Ooh, what’s going on? Something fun, I want to play, or get the leash, I want to go for a walk or whatever it is. But when you show up in sales conversations with what I call this dog calling energy, you tend to word vomit all over people. It’s like, oh my gosh, I could totally help you! Here’s all the ways! You could do this with me! You could do this package! You could blah, blah, blah! And people are like, oh my gosh, I’m so sorry I asked, I feel like I just got word vomited on that doesn’t feel good to me. So this dog calling energy does not create curiosity because you’re giving too much information too fast. It’s like fire hosing people, frankly. So if you think about wanting to call a cat, you do this little thing where you go, here, kitty, kitty! Right? It’s a little bit of a softer approach. Now cats may or may not come to this, but oftentimes they’ll at least give you a look and be like, Hmm, what, what are you doing? Let’s check it. Let’s check this out. Maybe. So when you want to create curiosity in your business, you need to create what I call Here Kitty Kitty statements. And oftentimes those statements come as a result of the way you answer questions. So for instance, right now if somebody were to ask me, Hey Nikki, what’s new with you or how are you? Right? That’s another super common question most of us get asked all the time. Now I could have a generic answer. I could say fine. Or I could say, uh, it’s been a tough year, whatever it’s been, but that doesn’t actually open the door for me to talk about my business or to see am I talking to a prospective customer or a client? So when somebody asks you a question, I want you to have what I call a Here Kitty Kitty response. So for me right now, if somebody’s like, Hey, how are you? I might say, oh, I’ve been really great, I’m gearing up for my new masterclass. Now that could potentially maybe create a little curiosity for somebody to go. What’s a masterclass or what are you teaching on? Or are you taking it or are you teaching it right? Like it gives them an opportunity to ask me then a question. And then because they ask me a question, I now have a little bit of a permission to give a more direct answer. And then that starts to plant seeds for this person to go, oh, I’m not interested in the masterclass. What else are you working on? Or what else have you been doing? Like, have you taken vacation? Or you know, we can change the subject. But oftentimes if I’m talking to a prospective client and they hear me talk about the masterclass, they’re like, tell me more. Like how does somebody get signed up for that? Well, now I can then walk through this process. I’ve created some curiosity, I can go to the discovery. Is this a potential class that would benefit them in some way? Then I can issue the invitation, which is to, this is how to sign up for the class. Would you like me to sign you up? That’s the close language. So I just walked through step three, four and five, but I don’t do that until I create some curiosity. So are you creating curiosity? And oftentimes the way you do it is the way you answer questions. This can also happen by the way, when you have a patient or a client in your room with you, right? You can answer questions that they’ll ask you in a way that might plant a seed, that for them to go, oh, tell me more about this. For instance, maybe you have a new treatment in your office and if somebody’s like, oh, you know, how, how, how are things, you know how have things been lately? You can say, oh, it’s been great, we’ve got this new treatment, we’re really excited about it, and clients are seeming to love it. Now that person could go, tell me more about the treatment or like, oh, okay. That’s nice. But if you don’t open that door, then you don’t really have permission to talk about it.
WHY SALES ARE A NECESSARY PART OF CARING FOR YOUR CLIENTS
DR. DANIELLE: That’s super simple. Right? When you lay it out that way, it doesn’t seem scary. It doesn’t seem pushy. It’s actually just like being vulnerable, being real about where you are and what you’re doing and not holding that back because you’re afraid that you might seem sales-y or you don’t want to be pushy. Instead you’re just actually being honest about what you are doing.
NIKKI: And when you can show up in that really authentic place, people want to know more because I guarantee you most of your clients and your patients for anybody listening or whoever it is that you’re working with, they probably would like to know more about you and about your business. They don’t necessarily have the skillset or the right words to even ask. They don’t even know if they can ask – is that inappropriate? Should I not ask that question? You’re worried about being pushy, chances are your prospect or your patient is also worried that they might overstep with you in some way. So if you don’t ever open that door to have real conversations with them, they may never open the door either because they don’t know if it’s okay.
DR. DANIELLE: Okay. So the other step in the five steps that I wanted to ask you a bit more about was the fifth step, the close. And you had mentioned that you can’t skip the close. You can’t skip any of the steps, but you can’t skip the close and that the close is about getting a yes or a no from the person. So can you elaborate on this a little bit more so that people might understand a bit further? What does it look like to get the yes or the no from someone?
NIKKI: Yeah. And just to clarify, there’s a few other things that could happen. It might not just be a yes. It might not just be a no, but let’s talk about it. If you don’t pose the question, people oftentimes will not make a decision. And the reason for that is, frankly, our brains are lazy where most of us are overloaded with decision. We have decision fatigue and if we’re not forced to make a decision, we won’t. So when you lay out a potential offer, for instance, let’s say that somebody asks about this new treatment and they’re like, oh, I wonder if that would work for me. And you ask them a question to check to see, or maybe you already know like, yes, this would work for you. What I want you to then do is follow up with a close question, and it’s in the form of a question. And usually it’s a yes or no question. It would be – is that something you’d like to get scheduled? Or can we go ahead and get you on the calendar to try out this new treatment? So it’s a yes or no question that’ll ask somebody to go like, oh yeah, definitely, I want to do that. I want to get that on my calendar or for them to go, mm I’ll let you know. That’s okay too. Or they might have another question or they might even have an objection. They might say, well, you know, you had said to me earlier on that maybe that isn’t the right solution for me. So now I’m wondering, is it? And now you can have a real conversation with them about whether or not it is a great solution for them. And let’s say that the answer is, yes, it is in fact a great solution because something has changed for them or something has changed in your treatment. And now you can say, you know, well, based on where you are right now, it is something I’d recommend. Then I’m going to follow up with another close question and I’m going to say so with that, is that something you’d like to try out? If you don’t issue this close, oftentimes they’ll leave the office or they’ll leave their session with you. And they won’t ever really kind of come back to it and not because they don’t want it, but because as soon as they leave your office, they’re checking their phone, they’re on social media, they’re thinking about what are they going to make for dinner? There’s so many other things bombarding them, but if they miss out on whatever that treatment or whatever that next step is for them, that may be the thing that really makes the biggest impact in their health or in their wellness or in their hitting this goal or overcoming some struggle that they have in their life. So I really fully believe it is your job to pose these questions to people and allow for them to make decisions. And if you don’t, you’re really not being truly of service to your clientele or to your prospects.
If they miss out on whatever that treatment or whatever that next step is for them, that may be the thing that really makes the biggest impact in their health or in their wellness or in their hitting this goal or overcoming some struggle that they have in their life. So I really fully believe it is your job to pose these questions to people and allow for them to make decisions. And if you don’t, you’re really not being truly of service to your clientele or to your prospects.
– Nikki Rausch
DR. DANIELLE: So in my programs, we talk about this concept of closing loops. And a lot of people in my programs are burned out and they’re overwhelmed and they’re leaking energy all over the place when they come to me. They don’t know that that’s what they’re doing. They don’t know that. That’s why they feel so tired and run down. It’s not asking the direct question of – so with that being said, would you like to go ahead and get this scheduled? It’s like, okay, you’ve done all this work, you’ve done all this giving of information and you’ve suggested you’ve made recommendations. And then you’re just like, okay. So just let me know. And you’ve left this loop open, right? Whether you’re consciously thinking about it or not, you’re giving energy to like the hope that this person’s going to come back around and let you know whatever they’re supposed to let you know that you’ve left really vague. And actually it does that to the other person, the receiving end of this conversation as well, without you even realizing it. So it’s draining everybody’s energy when we leave those loops open. So this is a really interesting perspective, I think, to look at this way, but if you are having those conversations in your office and you’re saying, okay, this is what I think you should do. All right…so let me know. I’m saying it like that because that’s literally what we say.
NIKKI: I know I hear people say it all the time and I teach my clients. It’s a phrase I’d like for you to get out of your vocabulary. This “let me know.” And to even put a finer point on this, I feel so strongly about this “let me know” – you are essentially saying to your prospect, Hey, go put me on your to-do list. And frankly, they say most of us die with our to-do list undone. And if you’re just adding to somebody’s to-do list, you’re really not making a positive impact in their world because none of us need anybody adding stuff to our to-do list. And your job as the seller is to earn the person’s business. And the way you earn business is by making it super easy for the person; putting you on their to-do list is not making it easy. I actually teach, and I call it a closing the loop conversation. So let’s say I issue the invitation to them to, you know, can we go ahead and get you scheduled for that? And they’re like, uh, I’d really rather just let me think about it for a couple days. I always say your job is to have the next step scheduled before you end that conversation. So I always say to somebody, great. Well, what do you think about us just scheduling a time to close the loop on this. Like let’s schedule a time on our calendars now just to talk. And then that way we can answer any additional questions that come up and talk about next steps for working together. You have to close, like close the loop with somebody. Circle back – I call these circle back calls, like let’s circle back on this and get ’em scheduled. And if you don’t do that again, you’re just adding to somebody’s do list. And frankly, you probably are not that high up on their priority. I think they say most of us get like three things on our to do list done each day. Like if you do, that’s like a super successful day. You’re probably not going to be one of their top and you’re never going to make it. You’re going to get an email. They call this getting pushed below the fold. Once it’s pushed below the fold of what you can see as your emails, like it doesn’t even exist in their world anymore. So you’re going to be on their to-do list below the fold. They’re never going to make a decision about it because you didn’t make it easy for them. So circle back calls are super important, getting those scheduled, and then what happens is it gives the person the opportunity to in fact, think about it. Sometimes it’s five minutes before they get on a call with you, and make a decision or come up with a question that’s holding them back in some way.
SELLING WITHOUT TREATMENT PLANS OR PRODUCTS
DR. DANIELLE: So for people who don’t sell treatment plans, I want to just speak to the audience on this. Because you might be thinking like, well, I don’t sell plans in my practice. That’s okay. This still applies to you because when the patient comes to your practice for their new patient exam, and you’ve done the exam and now you’re discussing your exam findings, you give recommendations or at least you should give recommendations for what the patient should be doing. That’s the proposal, right?
NIKKI: Yes.
DR. DANIELLE: Yes. And then if your, if your care plan at that point is that they should be treated four times that week because they have something very acute going on, that’s your proposal. And then your close is to ask them, okay. So are you ready to go ahead and proceed with this plan?
NIKKI: Yes.
DR. DANIELLE: Right? I think what I’m trying to say is don’t convince yourself that this doesn’t apply to you just because of your treatment style or like how you practice or what technique you use. This can fit for practically everyone. And if you’re convincing yourself, oh, I don’t need to do this because I don’t still have treatment plans or I don’t do long term care or whatever it may be. You’re actually missing the point of the conversation.
NIKKI: Yes, amen, to what you just said. It’s so easy to try to dismiss this. And I get this all the time because people are like, well, Nikki, you know, I sell so and so, or I do this, so I don’t think your stuff will work. And I can honestly say in my almost eight years of having my business, that if you are selling to a person, whether you consider it selling or not, but if you’re making offer to a person this works and it works consistently, and it doesn’t really matter what field you’re in or how you have your business laid out or your practice, you know, laid out, it works. And the people who are consistent about it come back and oftentimes shockingly come back like so surprised. They’re like, oh my gosh, Nicky, I issued a close and this person signed up or this person said yes, or we scheduled those four sessions for them before they left the office. Because you made it easy for them. And that’s what it’s about.
DR. DANIELLE: Awesome. Okay. Nikki has a free gift that she would like to offer our listeners.
NIKKI: So for you the listener, I do have an ebook, it’s called Closing The Sale, and it kind of talks through those last three steps, the discovery, the proposal, and the close. And it has some language suggestions in there for you. And you can get that as my gift, by going to YourSalesMaven.com/well and Maven is M-A-V-E-N. So YourSalesMaven.com/well, and you’ll be able to download the ebook, Closing The Sale, and then we’ll be connected
DR. DANIELLE: Awesome. I’m excited for people to go check that out because again, this is a thing that we can convince ourselves that we don’t have to do and you don’t have to do it. That’s not untrue. You don’t have to, but I would suggest that if you are overwhelmed, burned out, tired, run down, and you know that you’re not getting as much return from your practice as what you could be getting from it, go get that ebook. Because this is just one more thing that’s going to help you stop leaking energy in all of the places that you’re leaking energy. Nikki, any partying thoughts before we wrap up?
NIKKI: Here’s what I will also say is that most people will not hire you until you issue that invitation or most people will not say yes until you issue the invitation. So try just issuing invitations for whatever next steps are with you, and see what happens. My guess is you’re going to come back and be like, I just booked four new clients, or I just helped somebody make a huge transition in their life and you’ll be so glad you did. So thank you for having me on your show. I’m really honored to be here.
DR. DANIELLE: Thank you so much. It’s been fun.