TSE 1099: Sales From The Street - "My Ideal Customer"

Business owners and sales reps who try to sell to everyone will struggle to succeed until they decide to focus their efforts on the ideal customer. Today, Dr. Frances Richards, whose company helps people reclaim their wealth by transforming their health, talks about the journey of finding her ideal customer. Sales From The Street allows us to connect with a sales professional and hear about the biggest professional struggles that person faced. Dr. Frances is the host of a podcast called Black Entrepreneur Experience, where she interviews CEOs, innovative thinkers, thought leaders, and black entrepreneurs across the globe. Finding a tribe Her biggest struggle was finding her ideal customer, and connecting with the people that her message would resonate with. When you're building an internet business, there are so many different ways to connect with people that it can sometimes be overwhelming for businesses that are trying to find their tribe. She points to the fact that there are plenty of people telling you what you should do to connect with your ideal client, so it's tough to know what to do. She said that people told her, "It's all in the email list," or "It's all in social media," or "It's all in Facebook advertising," or "It's all in the messaging." Changing landscape The hardest part, she said, is trying to determine what's really relevant. And with the internet constantly changing things, the way you build a company in 2019 is different than the steps you might have taken in 2014. The steps to find your ideal customer have changed. And when you talk about sales, certain steps are appropriate whether you're online or offline. Building rapport, and building quality relationships, matters in every situation. Authenticity Dr. Frances said that in order to find her ideal customer, she had to block out all the noise and focus on authenticity. She started by deprogramming herself from the idea of working for someone else. She said she had to adjust to the idea of working for herself and to lose all of the things she was accustomed to, like listening to the bosses tell her what she needed to do. Because she had done many different kinds of sales, she was able to change her mindset from employee mode to employer mode. Then she had to be true to who she really wanted to serve. When she was an employee, she had to serve anyone. Once she started to define who to serve, then she started to attract her ideal customer as opposed to just doing cold calling. To-do lists She had an extensive to-do list of doing 10 posts a day, doing a Facebook live, doing a Periscope, posting on LinkedIn, and all of those other things. She was busy working on the business instead of in the business, which actually brings in income. Once she prioritized how she would get sales and how she would bring value, she got out of the mode of being desperate. She was listening to her clients' pain points and she set out to serve them. She went into the mode of serving and helping her clients, her fan base, her tribe. Dr. Frances has turned down consulting contracts because she wanted to make it a win-win for all parties involved. She operates from a position of making sure both parties are a good fit. Qualified clients The shift to serving her clients resulted in more qualified clients. Previously she connected with clients who really couldn't afford her service so it would have been a disservice to try to work together. She started asking her prospects what they hoped to accomplish and if someone said, "I want to lose 50 pounds in 5 days," she wouldn't even try to convince the person to work with her since the goals were unrealistic. She has found that when she gets qualified, bonafide clients, the two enjoy working together. The clients are getting results and she is building testimonies. [Tweet "Avoid the temptation to work with everyone because everyone is not your ideal client. #IdealCustomer"] Ideal client Just serve the people who really need what you have to offer. Be who you authentically are. There will be plenty of voices telling you what you should do. Instead of following them, dig deep into yourself and discover what you're really passionate about. What makes you sing? What makes you get out of bed every morning? That's half the battle because your attitude dictates your altitude. If you love what you do, you'll do what you love. Dr. Frances uses the acronym DANCE to remind her to be authentic: Determine Action Now Creates Energy. Dancers dance because they want to, not because someone forces them to. Instead of doing things you don't like, do the things you authentically enjoy. Find your passion. "Ideal Customer" episode resources You can connect with Frances at drfrancesrichards.com and you can find her on Facebook and Instagram as Dr. Frances Richards. You can also find her podcast at Black Entrepreneur Experience. If you haven't connected with me on LinkedIn already, do that at Donald C. Kelly and watch the things I'm sharing there. You've heard us talk about the TSE Certified Sales Training Program, and we're offering the first module free as a gift to you. Preview it. Check it out. If it makes sense for you to join, you can be part of our upcoming semester. You can take it on your own or as part of the semester group. The program includes 65 videos altogether, and we just completed a beta group that helped us improve the program and maximize the information in it. If you and your team are interested in learning more, we'd love to have you join us. Call (561)578-1729 to speak directly to me or one of our team members about the program. This episode is also brought to you in part by mailtag.io, a Chrome browser extension for Gmail that allows you to track and schedule your emails. You'll receive real-time alerts anyone opens an email or clicks a link. I hope you enjoyed the show today as much as I did. If so, please consider leaving us a rating on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or wherever you consume this content and share it with someone else who might benefit from our message. It helps others find our message and improves our visibility. Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound.

Mentioned in this episode:

HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS

HubSpot and bluëmago | STUDIOS hubpspot.com/marketers bluemangostudios.com