No cold calling, ever

0:00

I you know, it just felt so unnatural to try and do cold calling, but when everything you're seeing is like, this is the only way like, it just was not meshing with who I am as a person, first of all, but then also how the name that we're trying to make for us is not this aggressive, cold calling kind of business.

Leah Neaderthal0:25

Welcome to the smart gets paid podcast with me. Leah Neaderthal, I help women land higher paying clients in their independent consulting businesses, but I've never been a salesperson. My background is in corporate marketing, and when I started my first consulting business, I learned pretty quickly that it's about 1000 times harder to sell your own stuff than it is to sell someone else's. So I taught myself how to do it, and I created the sales approach that I now share with my clients so they can feel more comfortable in the sales process, get more of the right clients and get paid way more for every client contract. So whether your client contracts are $5,000 $100,000 or more, if you want to work with more of the clients you love, do more of the work you love, and get paid more than you ever thought you could, then you're in the right place. Let's do it together. Thanks for tuning in, and don't forget to rate, review and share. Hey there. Thanks for joining me in this episode. I hope that wherever you are, wherever you're listening to this, I hope you're having a good week, making some good progress in your business, and also taking time for yourself. So the other night, my wife and I did something we hadn't done in a really long time. We got really dressed up and we went to a wedding. I mean, we've been to weddings, you know, since things started opening up. But this was different, because this was, like, our first night out since our second child was born. And I don't know it felt like more of a big deal that we were getting out. It was my college friend's wedding here in New York. And let's just set the scene here. I mean, our daughter was five weeks old, and we have our three year old who has become a little bit of a handful since his sister was born. And you know, my wife is like, five weeks out from delivery, she's nursing and those first several months, really, after a baby. I mean, they're just a little chaotic. So I'm not gonna lie, we, like, barely got our act together to go to this wedding. And to be fair, we honestly didn't even know till like, a week before whether we were going to be able to go. But because of that, that meant that everything was like, super last minute. So it was an Indian wedding, and most of the people were wearing traditional Indian dress. But, you know, we could not get it together in that week to get saris and like, the shirt underneath, which is supposed to be fitted to you. So we wore black tie, which was, like, that was fine, right? But we also didn't really have black tie dresses that fit these days, so we had to do something. So when I say that we barely got our act together, I mean, like barely. I ordered dresses from Rent the Runway that were delivered here, like the day before, and I just, I prayed that one of them was gonna fit. Thankfully, it did. My wife ordered some dresses, but they didn't get here in time. So she went into the city and, like, got a dress the day of the wedding, like that morning. And you guys, this is the stuff that, like, just stresses me out to no end. But thankfully, once the dress thing was sorted, it kind of all worked out. We got to dress up. We got to put on makeup and do our hair, and really like, feel like human beings again. And okay, if I say so myself, we both looked great. And, I mean, Emily, oh my God, my wife, she does not look like she just had a baby. I mean, she looks amazing. And it was just really, really nice, you know, to go out to see my friends from college, to look nice, and just kind of reconnect with each other, especially after having a new baby in the house. It just felt good. So I hope that whatever you're doing these days, you have a chance to do something that feels good, too. All right, so let's jump into the episode. So in this episode, I wanted to shine a light on something that nearly everyone I talked to assumes they have to do to get new clients, and that's cold calling. And I'm going to explain why you don't have to do it at all like ever, and what to do instead. So in this episode, you're going to hear me talk to one of my clients who works with companies in the healthcare industry, and before I met her, she was convinced that she'd have to do a ton of cold calling to get clients because, well, you'll hear her explain why, but in our conversation, I sort of, I don't know, give her permission to never do that again and explain the rationale. So I want to send a huge thank you to this client for allowing me to share this conversation with you. Take a listen, and at the end, I'll come back and share a lesson that you can apply to your business.

Leah Neaderthal4:52

Do you have an actual sales process? I'm talking about not a general sense of what you should be doing, but a real process where you know. Exactly what step comes next, who to follow up with, and when, and you can see at a glance where every potential client stands, if the answer is no, or if yours feels clunky or you're reinventing the wheel every single time I made something for you, it's called road map to clients. It's a free 20 minute video course, and in it you'll map out your customized sales process, step by step, from the very first contact with a potential client all the way to a signed proposal. It's the same foundational process we use with every Academy member, and it's completely free. Go to smart gets paid.com/roadmap to get started.

5:38

I do have one other question, if you still have time, yeah, yeah. Okay. So during, like, through the whole course, I kept on expecting like, we're going to get into cold calling, because so much of my focus had been on trying to make a cold call successful. Because I found myself like, if there's something that scares me about the sales process, which is cold calling, then I have to double down on it, and I have to make be really good at that. But I, but there wasn't a focus on that in this course, which I It feels a lot more natural. But I'm wondering if there, I mean, is that kind of your philosophy, that you don't recommend cold calls at all, or very rarely, like what you know, kind of where, where do you fall in that? What, what do you recommend as far as emails versus cold calling, all of that?

6:27

Yeah, so I think that's a good question, and, and I do remember in some of, like, our earlier conversations about, you know, cold calling, and you're like, I just want to, you know, make these cold calls awesome. Or I need to, like, do more, like, oh God, like, if you want to, but, you know, and I do, of course, appreciate this, the idea that if there's something that scares you, like, work harder at it, you know, double down on it where it makes sense. And, and so, yeah, I mean, my, this is my methodology, right? This is a methodology that worked for me. And and I hate cold calling. And so if everything that we're doing is designed to, you know, reposition us from sort of asking for something and saying, like, Hey, I got something you want. That thing right? Like, I got, I got some consulting you want. The consulting, cold calling puts us right back there and and so my methodology is more around, you know, the type of outreach. Well, first of all, I just feel more comfortable over email than, like, getting on the phone and being like, Hey, I got something if you want it. You know, let me know if you want it. The Email approach is designed to get you on the phone with people who really, actually do want to talk to you. And so, you know, using that as, like a first vetting, like, Hey, this is the problem. I this is not even like, I got, I got this thing. Do you want to buy this thing? But this is the problem that I solve. If you want to solve this problem for yourself, why don't we chat? I mean, that's the general gist of it, right? If you want to solve this problem for yourself, let's chat. Then when you get on the phone with them, it's a much warmer conversation, because you're not like, you don't have, like, 30 Seconds to win somebody over before they hang up on you. Yeah. What do you make of that approach?

8:20

No, I love it. It feels way better. I hate cold calling and but I wasn't seeing, you know, prior to this, course, I wasn't seeing any good resources that encouraged a different way of doing it with you know, it just felt so unnatural to try and do cold calling. But when everything you're seeing is like, this is the only way, and you have to, like, it just was not meshing with like, who I am as a person, first of all, but then also, how you know that the name that we're trying to make for for us is not this aggressive, cold calling kind of business. So, so I love it. I just, I wanted to make sure that I wasn't, you know, missing any, you know, any other thoughts from you on cold calling, because I am happy to dig the grave and just bury that and just stick with the email, because, because I'm, because I'm the same way the you know, I'm, I'm a writer as well. And so to be able to have more space in an email to really convey more of like, the emotion of like, what we do and that we care about you as a client, is way better. So I'm really happy about that

9:33

good I'm so glad. No, no, don't worry. You haven't like, missed the cold calling module there is, yeah, I'm curious, though, where were you when you were poking around on the internet for this? Where were you who was telling you that, like cold calling is the only way? Because that strikes me as a very like former, former sales people might say that because. So to do cold calling, it's really a numbers game, and you have to have a lot of manpower. And so the people who do cold calling, at least in my experience, have been people who have that manpower, like, like bigger companies or companies that, you know, want a devoted resource to even, like, an appointment setter, you know, I mean, you have a sales person that, like, gets on the phone, right? I haven't seen it as much from people who don't come from that background. So I'm just curious where you might have found that.

10:28

Yeah, so I think it wasn't one particular site or approach. I think I told you when we first spoke that there's the Finn Institute or something. They do these, like sales courses, or something like a crash course. You can come for a day, and they spend quite a bit of time on cold calling to even though they were talking to, like a wide range of people and so, so I know that they talked about it, which kind of in my mind, was like, well, this, like cement it then that this has to be an important element of of my sales process. And then the rest of it was really, like, you know, probably individual sales people. Like, on there were YouTube videos. There really wasn't a specific person or website. It was just like, you know, finding the talks and YouTube videos that talk about it. And maybe part of the problem was that I was assuming that that cold calling was important, and so I'm not sure if I ever, yeah, actually questioned if there was a different way, because I think I just assumed so, to just dive in without a sales background, and assume that, you know, that's what you do.

11:35

You know, it's I'm not surprised, though, because that's what, that's the type of selling that we interact with, you know, like, if somebody tries to sell you something, and so then you're like, Oh, well, that, I guess that's selling. If I'm going to, if I'm going to sell my services, I guess I have to do that, but, but there is another way,

Leah Neaderthal11:56

all right, so here's what I want to leave you with in this episode. The big lesson here isn't just that you don't have to cold call. And of course, you know, there are lots of ways to get leads and referrals and fill your pipeline that have nothing to do with cold calling. You know, we touched on a targeted outreach strategy that we use that's really warm and inviting and gets a really good response rate from the people we send it to. But even the LinkedIn strategy we use, the nurturing we do for warm leads, and all the strategies we use to bring leads and referrals into your business are really effective because they're comfortable for you and for the client. That's why they work. And of course, you know, if you want to learn those strategies and use them in your business, those are the strategies I'm sharing in the academy, and I'd love to share them with you and help you use them. But beyond the specific approaches, the thing I really hope you walk away with here is that most of the time, for most of us, the only examples of selling that we have are when people have tried to sell to us. But the way that you've experienced people trying to sell to you isn't the way that you have to sell in your business, because think about it. I mean, I'm sure you can think of a bad sales experience you've had, right? But I bet if I asked you to think of a good sales experience, you probably wouldn't be able to remember one, because it's those bad experiences that we remember, right? And what makes these experiences feel bad and kind of gross Is it where it feels like somebody's selling at you? That's a little bit when cold calling feels like feels like you're sort of selling at someone, where what we want is to feel like you're selling with your client, like your clients on board they want you. You're not convincing anybody, and it's really about finding the best solution that works for both of you, that's selling with your client, not at them. So all those things that feel salesy, that's why somebody's selling at you instead of with you, and that's what I hear from the women I talk to before they work with me. You know, they're really afraid that to get new clients is going to require doing those salesy, pitchy things that they experienced right as the buyer and that they didn't like. And actually a lot of times, that's what keeps women from working with me, because they assume that I'm going to make them do those exact same things, right? But as you heard here, you don't have to in fact, there are a lot of things you don't have to do to get higher paying clients. As I was prepping this episode, I put together a little list so we've already established that you don't have to cold call, right? You also don't have to do a ton of social media, you don't have to send spammy emails. You don't have to send LinkedIn messages or run ads or have a bunch of networking like get to know you calls, you actually don't have to send any first emails to any potential clients. As I mentioned, I have a really effective, targeted email system that gets a response. But if you don't want to use that, you don't have to. There are lots of other things you can use. You don't have to try to close someone on the first call. And in fact, when you're. Selling into businesses that doesn't even work, like that's not even a thing. You don't have to, quote, unquote, ask for the business. You don't have to act like a salesperson. You don't have to create standardized packages, especially if the scope of work that you do is different for every client. You don't have to try things like limited time offers or try to speed people up with expiration dates. You also don't have to write really long proposals. You know, you can have a fully customized proposal in just a couple pages and written in under an hour, and you don't even have to use a proposal tool to send your proposals out. I mean, listen, there are some fundamentals that you need, right? Like you need to be able to do great discovery in a sales conversation, and you need a way to price your work for value and write proposals that get a yes. But once you know those fundamentals, you can do it your way. So here's what I want you to walk away with. You get to decide how you show up in the sales process, and when you use the fundamentals that work and you do it your way, that's when you start to sell with your clients, and that's how you start to get clients that truly value you, that pay you for that value, and you develop great client relationships.

Leah Neaderthal16:12

Hey, everything we're talking about in this episode is part of the system. Women like you are learning in the academy. In the Academy, we help women consultants install the two systems every B to B, consultant needs a marketing system to consistently attract the right clients and a sales system to lead a sales process to a yes and get paid more for every contract. So even if you've only gotten clients through referrals or word of mouth in the academy, you'll learn how to attract and sign clients outside your network, how to lead a sales process with confidence, and how to get paid for your value, not your time, and there's no cold calling or cold emailing involved, no changing your services or making a course, and you won't use any pushy sales tactics. That's just not our vibe. So if you like what you've heard here, the academy may be your right next step to learn how you can get these two systems in your consulting business and make progress faster and with fewer roadblocks. Head to smart gets paid.com/academy and apply and we can chat about next steps. All right, see you over there. Transcribed by https://otter.ai