What happens when the hype period is over, the webinar ends, the free thing is done– how do you actually sell more of your product or service? That’s what we cover today in Part 3 of 4 of our Launch series.

I break it down into three segments.

First, gather the ingredients that are required for a successful sales sequence. I explain each one in detail: No-brainer deal, incentive, scarcity, nudging, compassion, connection, and energy.

Next, set up a clear timeline and structure. This typically includes four components: Fast Action, Mid Cart, Close Cart, Down Sell. I go into each one in depth, showing how discounts affect consumer behavior.

Then, develop your social media strategy core elements: Transformation A to B, behind the scenes looks, celebrate new customers, testimonials, list of features, and what makes you unique. I share tips I’ve learned over the years about how to strengthen this part of your digital marketing sales funnel.

Be ready to take some notes! We cover a lot in this episode, including how to measure sales performance.

In this episode, you’ll hear…

• What ingredients you need for a successful sale
• The four components of a sale timeline
• Social media elements to keep your metrics up during a launch

Click here to find the full show notes and transcript for this episode.

RESOURCES:

• Watch Louise Henry’s “11 Instagram Story Ideas for More Sales” YouTube video.
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DISCLAIMER

Produced by NOVA Media

Sam Vander Wielen:

That's where we're going to start to create some hope for them, and meeting them where they are and saying I know you're not thrilled about this, or I know this has been hard, or I know this thing has been difficult. So, we can connect with people in that way and not turn them off or make them feel like this is going to be too much for them, or it's ahead of them, or it's for people who are different than them. So, I really like to kind of meet people where they are and make them feel understood.

Hey, and welcome back to On Your Terms and to Part 3 of this Launch Series. So, Launch Series Part 1, we talked about data and breaking down the numbers and how to get enough people in your community and audience in the first place so that you have enough people to sell to, now that we are more realistic about the conversion numbers, because I taught you that back in Part 1. Last week in Part 2, we talked about the hype period teaser, invite period, creating some sort of live element to build momentum buzz and priming the right people to buy your product or service.

And now, today, in Part 3 of this four part series, we're going to talk about sales. What happens when the hype period is over, the webinar ends, your challenge is complete, the free thing is done, whatever, how do we actually sell more of your product or service? That's what we're going to talk about today.

I'm going to bring you today's episode in three different segments. We're going to talk first about the ingredients that are required for a good sale, you know I had to have a food analogy in there. So, we're going to talk ingredients first. We're going to talk a sale, timeline, and bonus structure second. And last but not least, we're going to talk about social strategy and what you can do on social media to actually make sales. Because, typically, people's social stats plummet during a promo. But this year we did better than ever so I'm going to share exactly what I did.

All right. Let's hop in to section number one, key ingredients for a good sale, besides having an audience of the right people, building a great product that they actually want, not just that you think that they should, And knowing very clearly what they struggle with and what they want instead. Those are a lot of big assumptions on my part, but we have to have those things in order to have a good sale. So, I thought that they were worth mentioning.

All right. Let's go into ingredient number one. The first and probably foundational ingredient that you need for a successful sale is no-brainer. That's what it is. So, it's really that you need to have some sort of incentive in the sale. Is there some sort of bonus, a discount, some thing that you're adding, some live session with you, something like this, that is making this just such an easy decision for buyers. That's really what you have to think about. So, I want you to go into your launch, into your sale, even into creating the bonuses for the sale thinking, Am I just making this as easy of a decision? Like who wouldn't want to miss this, right?

So, years and years ago, my copywriter, Caitlin, she taught me about the concept of no-brainer-ism when it comes to creating bonuses. But I have taken this kind of approach and way of thinking about this to everything in my business. I think about this when I create freebies even, for example. Just a little side note, I think about this when I create freebies of is it just like a no-brainer that somebody wants this freebie so bad that they would sign up for it? And that's how you get more people on your email list.

The same logic applies for a sale. If it's a sale that's just like, "Yeah. It's kind of like every other sale. I know this thing's available. Some other time. I can buy it some other time. I'll wait until it goes on sale later this year or the next time she runs the sale." Why this sale? What are you going to do that's going to make this such a no-brainer decision for them?

The next ingredient you want to focus on is creating an incentive. So, similar to the no-brainer thing, we want to make sure that there's some incentive to getting them to want to buy this product, period, let alone buying it right now. So, we want to think about maybe creating some sort of discount that goes away, exclusive bonuses that are only available at this time period, or maybe even only available this week and then you're never going to offer that kind of thing again, something really exclusive. Maybe some sort of live event that they get access to that will be over if they don't buy now.

So, I really like to use live things to play with in a sale because it's the kind of thing where it's like that's a no-brainer. I mean, there's a combo of ingredient one and two, but it's a no-brainer that if I'm going to offer you some sort of live Q&A call and it happens a week or two weeks after the sale ends, you can't wait six months to buy it because you're going to miss out on that free call. So, I like to play with that. But anything that you can think of that gives them the incentive, all with the idea in mind of why should I buy this thing now, why should I even buy this thing in general.

The third ingredient is very similar and related, but it's scarcity. So, scarcity is that this thing goes away. It ends. So, if I don't get this now, then it goes away. I have a very - I don't know - complicated relationship, if scarcity and I were dating, we would be it's complicated on Facebook, if that's still a thing, I don't know. But scarcity is tough because scarcity has also been overused and manipulated in our industry.

At the same time, people need to have some sort of deadline in order to make a decision.

Sometimes I get really frustrated that we get bad flack for this as online business owners. And it's like I don't like that you're making me pressured to make a decision or something like this. And I'm like, when you go to Target and something's on sale, it's only on sale for a certain number of days. And people don't go to Target and complain and say that they're putting pressure on them. So, I want you just to have that in mind, I guess, in case you're like, "Oh. I don't know. I don't know how I feel about it." This is just the way that sales work. It's okay. It's a limited time. This thing goes away and it's going to be over.

My product, for example, is still available. It's available all the time. You just won't be able to get it for the same price and you might not be able to get the same bonuses because I create those no-brainer incentive bonuses that make sense for people to want to buy this right now.

On the flip side, some people's products aren't available so it's like a closed cart type of product and so maybe this product won't actually be available once the sale ends. So, that's another form of scarcity. So, it could be a sale that goes away. It could be a bonus that goes away. It could be some live element that goes away, something you get to add, or it could be that your product itself goes away and it won't be available anymore.

The fourth ingredient to a successful sale is nudging. Because sometimes you got to nudge people to just push them over the fence. When people are sitting there, they're sitting on the fence, they're straddling that fence, they're not sure, like "Should I do it? I don't know. She gave me incentive." There's something about it that's a little no-brainer. I understand it goes away. There's some scarcity. But what is it that you can do that gives them the nudge?

In my opinion, this typically has to do with speaking more to really where they're at right now and really encouraging people. I think you can really adapt this tip to your industry no matter what you do. But really asking for them to look at how things are ever going to get better or change or be any different if they don't take action and finally do something about it. I think that often tends to incentivize people in a healthy way too. But it's like if you've been sitting here thinking about starting your business for a year and you've not started it because you're not sure about how to legally set it up, then why are you waiting to get the Ultimate Bundle? Just go get it so you can register your business.

And I usually paint a picture and this is all part of the nudging process. I paint a picture of what's all going to be possible for them now that they'll finally have taken action. So, once I've given them the nudge that they needed, like what's one micro step, what's one micro commitment we can get them to take to move forward, purchase this product and see how they could implement it right away. So, that's how we focus on the nudge.

The fifth ingredient is compassion, because I think it's really important to meet people where they are and make them feel understood and not feel judged or ashamed in some way because that's a pretty surefire way to get somebody to clam up and probably go away. But when you speak to somebody in a really honest earnest way and say I really get it, I get where you're at, either I've been there before, or I've helped other people like you who have been there before, and speaking to what that really feels like and what they wish that things were like instead, and then talking more about where they could go in a different direction and a better, healthier, happier, more financially secure, whatever it is that you do direction, then that's where we're going to start to create some hope for them and meeting them where they are and saying I know you're not thrilled about this, or I know this has been hard, or I know this thing has been difficult. So, we can connect with people in that way and not turn them off or make them feel like this is going to be too much for them, or it's ahead of them, or it's for people who are different than them. So, I really like to kind of meet people where they are and make them feel understood.

The sixth ingredient is connection. And I think it's somewhat related or builds off of our previous ingredient of compassion. But I like to connect with what people are going through by sharing stories and highlighting examples of what my clients were going through before they joined and what it's like for them now instead. So, again, it's kind of using that former ingredient of compassion to talk about I know where you are, here's this example of this client who was right where you are right now and now look at them.

And I want you to really focus on what it was specifically about your product, your methodology, your work together, your approach, whatever it is that really allowed that person to make the transformation. So, I want you to share the transformation of A to B of other people, of yourself. And use that to speak, though, too. Don't just tell them stories about other people. Bring it back to them and connect it to the person who's reading this email or social posts or whatever. And I want you to help them understand and see themselves in it. And I want you to illustrate for them what it was about your product and your process that really helped them. And they can maybe connect to your story or connect to your customer's story, because they will be able to see themselves in it.

And it's very, very important that other people can see themselves in you, in your story, in the journey, in the desires, the outcomes, whatever. People need to see themselves in it. They need to feel like this is a reflection, a mirror for them. So, the more stories that you're sharing this way and really painting the picture, there's somebody in that community who they're going to identify with, and that's very important.

The seventh and final ingredient to a good sale is energy. I have talked about this in every single part of this series, and I should talk about it even more. Your energy has to stay up throughout the promo, whatever you're running, whether it's with a webinar, a long sale, a short sale, a weekend sale, a flash sale, it does not matter. I want your energy to stay up throughout regardless of how the promo's going. I'm going to need you to do whatever it is that you need to do in order to commit to that.

If that for you right now is that you don't look at sales, like I have a friend who doesn't look at how many sales are coming in during a promo, I have other friends where that incentivizes them. Although, I think it tends to incentivize you once you're maybe a bit further along in business and the sales are a bit more like - I mean, they're never automatic, but I can kind of understand how things are going to work at this point.

In the beginning, I don't think it was healthy for me to look at sales as a motivator. I think in the beginning it would have been healthier for me to just not look and say I'm just going to go through the sales period and bring the energy no matter what. So, you need to either not look at stuff or you need to work on your mindset. Like this promo, I'm just going into this as a scientist. I'm going to see how this goes. I'm not putting any pressure. I also think we need to adjust our expectations and that's a big part of what will help to maintain your energy.

I talked about in Part 1 of the series about how the truth is that the conversion percentage is so low, like maybe 1 percent, maybe 2 percent of the people in your audience will buy your product during a promo. And so, depending on your audience size, that number is probably a lot lower than you were hoping for. And I don't say that to be a downer or anything like that, but I think it can adjust the expectations because I think sometimes what happens is that people go into sales thinking I'm going to make a hundred sales.

I only just started making a hundred something sales in a promo and it's taken seven years to get there and a lot of promos, a lot of promo experience. I'm spending a lot of money to get it to be there. I have a team. There are just a lot of things that go into that. And so, it's helpful in the sense of just being more realistic and maybe let yourself be a bit more surprised in a good way versus being let down that something didn't go well. Now, I am not encouraging you to not dream big and not have high hopes and big goals for yourself, but we also want to be grounded in reality, so it's a bit of a balance.

I really just want you to commit at the start to seeing a promo all the way through, because one of the biggest mistakes that I used to make and that I see others make now is that you would shift your behavior in how much you show up for your promo based on how you feel like it's going. So, what a typical kind of energy timeline is that everybody comes into a promo real excited and can't wait. This promo is going to be huge. I'm going to make hundreds of thousands of dollars. All this stuff. And then, it's quieter than you thought on day one, on day two, maybe even day three, if we make it that far.

And then, what happens is you had all this stuff scheduled, you had every intention of doing Instagram lives and going on stories every day, and sending out extra emails, and reaching out to people who attended your webinar. And then, you just let it all die because you're like, "Who cares?

Nobody showed up. Nobody wants this thing. I was so stupid to put this out there in the first place. No one thinks I'm worth paying." We all go down whatever mindset spiral it is as you're mindset spiral du jour. But I probably have some combo of all of those things and have done all of those things in the past myself. Maybe I'm alone. I don't know. You can tell me if you've felt any of those things about a launch before, I would love to hear from you, make sure you reach out to me. But at least I felt that way before. I've had launches that have gone that way. And what I start to do is I start to hide. And so, during that launch, I had every good intention of doing something, and then I just started to pull back because it wasn't going the way I'd hoped.

What I know now is that it's a self-fulfilling prophecy or essentially shooting yourself in the foot. Because when a promo is not going as well as you hoped or as you thought it would and that you had these expectations, realistic or unrealistic, it doesn't matter, but sometimes things just don't go according to plan. When you pull back, now you're just guaranteeing it's not going to go well. That's all you're doing. It's kind of like taking control of the sales process in a bad way. You're just being like, "I'm just going to pull back." And now, you're going to ensure that you make no sales or very few.

Whereas, what I have seen is that there have been some times that promo started out slower than I thought, different than I thought. We had a banger tech snafu on day one of my most recent promo that we're kind of dissecting in this launch series. And that easily could have derailed me. In the past, that would have derailed me. That would have made me be like, "It's over. I spent all this money on this webinar, I got all these people signed up, and it was squandered. It doesn't matter." Instead, it was just like, actually, now I need to adjust. I need to shift.

So, I'm still keeping my energy high. I'm keeping my energy positive. But I'm just adjusting on the fly. I'm staying open and nimble. And I'm just figuring out since that happened, what do I need to do differently and just playing with it. I also had to let go, like that was such a big deal that that had happened. It was so bad. It was so embarrassing. And it was just like, "You know what? It happened."

And if you listen to Part 2, a listener had submitted a question asking how I kind of keep it low energy and low stress and I maintain my energy throughout a launch. I mentioned that this is part of it. Part of it was you got to let some stuff go. You have to expect that some things are just going to happen in a promo, and like, "Oh. That's to be expected," because that even [inaudible] - if that's a word - helps to protect my energy and keep my energy consistent and not make it super stressful. I don't expect everything to go perfectly because it's literally impossible. I have a whole team of people behind me who are perfectionists just like me. We're all freaked out about making mistakes. They are extremely smart, extremely talented, extremely hardworking on the ball, detail-oriented people. We still make mistakes. And even when we do stuff right, stuff still happens.

We didn't even do anything wrong when it came to the tech snafu, for example. That was just something that happened because of the program we were using. And they had just a freak day where there was some problem with their software. And so, who knew, right? Nothing to do with us. We couldn't control it. So, if I would have let that spiral me very much that day, that would have drained my energy. And then, that would have made it really hard to show up. I had another webinar the very next day. And so, what I did instead was like, "You know what? I'm going to come to the second webinar. I'm going to try to kill it because then we're going to try to use that for the replay," for example. And we can tell people who are on the first one that if they want to come to today's, then they get a redo. So, I had to have my energy up.

All right. Now, that we talked about all the ingredients that are necessary for a successful sales part of your launch to make a lot of sales, I want to talk with you a little bit about the structure and the timeline of how I run the sales period of a launch in a way that I think actually makes more sales. So, this will all make sense in a second.

All right. So, the amount of time that your product is for sale, maybe it's after your webinar ends or you're just going straight to sale like we talked about in Part 2, it kind of depends on a number of factors. I mean, for one, everything is always up to you. You own your own business. You can do what you want. So, you can have it be short or long. However, in my experience, if it's a little bit more expensive, like a higher ticket item tends to need a little bit more time to have a full sale, I would also consider how much time you need to run through all the appropriate pieces that we're about to talk about, like fast action, mid-cart, closed cart, and then maybe a down sell. Those are the pieces to the sales period.

So, it kind of depends. I have run many, many different kinds of sales. I've run sales that start on Monday and end on Friday. I have about a $2,000 product and that works okay for me. I also make sure though that I'm hitting all the ingredients, all the things, all the stuff we're about to talk about in the sales strategy section. I can do that in that period of time. I also spend a ton of time on step zero that I talked about in Part 1 of this series, where I am not only building my audience all the time, I'm nurturing them, I'm talking about my product, keeping it top of mind, familiarizing my audience with what I do, what I sell, who I'm helping, all of that, so that it gives me the ability to kind of like quick sprint.

I don't know, it's like if you were a runner, for example, and you ran really long distances all the time and you let your legs rest a bit, you're giving yourself the ability to be able to sprint when needed. So, if you're doing that, that comes from like running consistently, working out consistently, strengthening your legs. It's very similar when it comes to business that if you're putting in the work between the sprints - the sprints in this case are sales - you're going to give yourself that ability to do short sprints. But if people don't know who you are, what you do, what you sell, what your product is, why they should care, you're going to need a little bit more time in order to explain a lot of those things. Ideally, you wouldn't be going into a sale having to do that much work, but I think we all kind of start somewhere and we learn over time.

So, I wouldn't drag it out just to have a long sale for some reason. I think sometimes people want to make the sale really long thinking they'll get more people. Sometimes that backfires because you give people too much time to think. At the same time, you don't want to make it too short because you don't want people to not have enough time to get their stuff in order, in order to buy your thing, or to have enough time to see your emails, or whatever it is. Usually, it's some email or some message of some sort that you send to them, that's the thing that kind of pushes them over the edge so we want to give you enough time to do that.

So, there are about four components when it comes to how you structure a sales timeline. And those are fast action, mid-cart, closed cart, and down sell. But down sell is kind of optional. I mean, they're all optional, but down sell is not one that everybody does, and especially not in the beginning.

So, let's start with fast action, the very first one. That is typically the shortest window. It's typically the very first part of your sales period, coming right when your sale starts, and it's when people would get the most bonuses or the biggest discount or some additional thing that will go away after that very tight time period. So, if you run a ten day sale or something like that, maybe this fast action period would be the first three days or the first five days, something like that. And then, those things would start to drop off as the sale goes longer.

Sometimes people have what's then called a mid-cart time period in their sales. So, this is an optional time period within your sales. But mid-cart is that period immediately after fast action and then it would be before closed cart. So, with mid-cart, it's kind of that middle phase. You're kind of that awkward in between phase where now we're looking to give people a reason because they just missed out on fast action and they didn't bite. So, why are they going to buy now?

So, with mid-cart, we try to give them a reason. Like maybe you introduce something new, like a new bonus, and of course I would give that bonus to the people who already bought in the fast action, period. But maybe now you introduced some new bonus. Or I know some people will introduce a different payment plan only to those people who are in mid-cart, maybe a longer term payment plan becomes available to them for two or three days only. But the mid-cart just helps people to give a mid-cart boost because when you run a sale, the majority of people will buy during your fast action if you make your fast action really good. And a good fast action has good, no-brainer bonuses and the biggest discount that you're going to offer. And you just kind of make it a no-brainer, like if I'm going to buy this, why not buy it right away, but it's really for those people who are already sure and they're just ready to pounce on the sale. Now we're in mid-cart, it's like, well, why are they going to buy now? So, we're just thinking about it that way.

Like I said, you don't have to do mid-cart. You can go from fast action straight to the third part, which is what we call closed cart. So, closed cart is if you were only doing fast action and closed cart, it's the time period immediately following fast action to when the sale ends. Or if you're doing mid-cart, then it's from when mid-cart ends to when the sale ends. But this is the last call. This runs from that time period and it's like all onboard or get out, this is it, the train is leaving the station. And this is typically when there's still a discount, maybe the discounts are not as good as the fast action, maybe the bonuses, there aren't as many bonuses or some really, really juicy bonus has kind of fallen off.

I have played with this many different ways. I've been successful with many different types. So, I really think that this is something you have to experiment with and you have to see what your audience really likes too. But recently, actually in this promo that we just did in February, that was the $300,000 launch, I decided to keep the financial discount the same throughout the entire promotion. So, it was like an eight day window or something like that. I wanted it to be that way for a reason, so it's very important to me.

One of my core business principles is to have access, to give people access to my product. And I don't want to only reward people who have access to money on day one. And I know that my product isn't the cheapest, it doesn't need to be, it's super, super valuable, and they get so much for it, and I know it helps people. At the same time, I want to make it possible for people. So, a lot of times I would get emails in the past from people saying I have to move some money around, or have to transfer money to an account, or I'm about to get paid on Friday, or whatever it is, and if they decide that my product is the right decision for them, I want to make sure that they have enough time. I also want to make sure that people have enough time to make an informed decision and they didn't feel like they bought it just because they were under pressure.

So, this time around, I decided I was - I don't know - maybe a little nervous that I was like, maybe it's too long, maybe it's not going to give people enough incentive. I think what it ended up doing is we always have a ton of fast action purchases. And I think what it ended up doing was making this very bifurcated split where we had a ton of purchases the first couple of days and then we had a ton of purchases at the end. So, it was this kind of split whereas we tend to have way more in fast action and then fewer in the closed cart period. I mean, it didn't matter to me. It was fine by me whatever people needed to do. But we did have bonuses that went away during that fast action period.

So, closed cart, you can kind of do with it what you want. You can make the price go up a little bit. You can make the bonuses go away. I've also done it before where there's a bigger bonus for the fast action - what we also refer to as the open cart - but fast action period. And then, there's still a discount during closed cart, but it's not as good as fast action, but it's still better than what people would be able to get outside of the sale window. And then, when the sale ends, it goes back all the way up. So, you can kind of also have multiple phases. That's a possibility too.

Okay. So, I also mentioned about the down sell being the final part of the structure, and I said it was optional as well. So, I didn't have a down sell for the first several years. I actually don't always run a down sell when I do a promo. But the idea with a down sell is that after everybody's gone through the sale, if anybody didn't buy, do you have an alternative product or service that's maybe more introductory, a little bit less expensive, something like that, a lower investment in all senses of the word that people could get that would at least get them started. I mean, in fact, you might even create something with this idea in mind.

And so, the idea with a down sell is that you typically run it for a very short period after the sales window, maybe 72 hours, some people only even do 24 or 48 hours, and you would give them probably some sort of special discount using kind of all the same ideas and strategies that we've talked about here of just giving them a really good incentive, speaking to where they're at, saying I know you didn't want my product right now, but I have this other thing for you that would just get you started. So, that's always a possibility, something to play with, and something to consider for your future launches too.

All right. Last but not least, let's talk sales strategy. So, my biggest sales strategy in general is to have a really great sales email sequence that goes out to your email list during the sales period. This is hands down the best thing to hire for if you can. You want to look for somebody who's a conversion copywriter. Not all copywriters are the same. They all focus on different things. And somebody who maybe necessarily writes website copy might not be always the best conversion copy writer, and vice versa, or somebody who focuses on email marketing or social media copy. They're all different, just like there are all different kinds of lawyers and doctors and all that kind of stuff. So, I don't look for my heart surgeon to do foot surgery for me. And I feel the same way about my copywriters.

So, I look for somebody who's really focused on conversion and sales copy.

They write sales sequences. And if they do voice of customer research, even better. You want to look for someone who does that for you. You also want to remember to start with them months and months in advance. So, I think what I've often heard from my copywriters and from friends who are copywriters that they hear from people all the time saying, "Hey, I have a launch next month. I was wondering if you could write for me." They may or may not have time, but they're really not going to have enough time to do what you truly need for them to do, to create a great sales sequence. What they're going to do, hopefully, is talk to some of your customers, they're going to get voice of customer data and feedback, which is what we do all the time multiple times a year.

And we hear what customers are saying consistently about the problems that they experienced before they found me, what led them to finding my product, what they got out of my product, what they've been able to do with it. And we basically aggregate that data, those phrases, the common themes, and we use that to create the copy for the sales period.

So, your conversion copywriter would go and write you a sales sequence that follows the structure that I just talked about. They would have an open/fast action section. They would have maybe mid-cart, they would have a closed cart, and they would follow the flow and the sequence of what needs to happen, what needs to occur in that sales sequence in order to get somebody to convert. That's why they're called a conversion copywriter. They know how to focus on the psychology of buyers on the emotional components that go behind speaking to people who are on the fence and trying to make a decision, really overcoming a lot of objections and seeing themselves in your content and your work. So, it's very, very important, if you can, to hire somebody as soon as you can, in order to get that sequence done for you.

In terms of budget, I mean, it really ranges on who you find. Like you could find somebody who's brand new as maybe just trying to get experience. I thought some back of the napkin math, I guess, for me was like, well, maybe around $2,500 would be a starting investment for getting that kind of sales sequence. Now, before you freak out, I want you to remember that this is a sales sequence you can use over and over and over again. So, I used mine many, many times and it made its money back many times over. And so, that was like a good starting point. I mean, you can go up to 3,000 or 4,000 or 5,000 or 6,000. I think once I got to some pretty good ones, maybe I started paying 5,000 or 6,000, something like that. I obviously pay a lot more now over time. But we started out with really great copywriters who did such a good job, so I would shop around, ask for some quotes, but I would ask if they do voice of customer research and I would get started with them as early as you can.

Now, when it comes to social media, I tried something really different this time around with my sales strategy. I've always, in the past, had a plan on social and I've just like kind of winged it and I really thought about which points. I think the biggest thing I did differently this time is that I decided which points I wanted to hit and then created content to meet all of those points versus saying I'm going to do five reels and two lives. What do I want to say in those reels? What do I want to do in those lives? I kind of reversed engineered it this time.

I want you to think about what posts you want to make during the sale, which element each one's hitting that I'm about to mention to you. I'm going to go over all the elements. And I really want you to focus on sticking to one action per post. So, what is the one thing you're asking people to do from every single post that you're creating? And it should only be one because it's really good once you audit your own post. Like after you write something and it's in a draft form, go back and make sure you're only asking them to do one thing and make sure it's one micro thing, and it's very specific and it's very clear what you're asking them to do. Are you asking them to reply with a certain word? Are you asking for them to click a link? Are you asking for them to send you a DM? Are you asking them for feedback? Just make it one thing, but don't ask them for three, don't ask them to give you an emoji comment and DM you, and click a link. Too many things. Just one.

So, what are those elements then that I decided to hit on social media this time that I saw worked so well? Well, I was really, really inspired by my friend, Louise Henry, in a YouTube video that she had that I will link to down below. Louise kind of took all of the things that I had listed out and that was like, "Okay. I know I want to talk about these elements and these things," and she just said it way better and more succinctly. And I was like, that's what I've been trying to put together. And it was just such a great mashup of what I was planning to do and what Louise does. And Louise and I are very similar anyway, so it does not surprise me that this is kind of how we were thinking about things. And so, I highly encourage giving that video a watch.

And this is kind of how I applied it. So, I took a bunch of different elements of things I wanted to make sure, topics I wanted to hit. And then, like I said, I decided how am I going to present that. Is it going to be an Instagram story, a post, a reel, TikTok video, whatever? And I made it a very well rounded approach. I created then a schedule and I knew which ones I was going to hit on which days and I mixed and matched. Each one of these only went in one post. So, each element I'm about to mention, for example, the Transformation A to B - the first one we're going to talk about - the piece of content only focused on Transformation A to B. But on the same day, I might've had a post that was about transformation, and then a story that had a different element, and then a reel that had a different element. So, I would only focus at one at a time, but I would sometimes double up and mix and match in different areas across social media.

So, let's get into each one of these elements. The first one, like I said, was Transformation A to B. So, this is classic old school thing to focus on for sales was just if you really know your customer very well, you know very well where they're at right now, what they're struggling with, what they're going through, what snippets of their day look like, what they wish was different and why, and what they wished it looked like instead. So, what I like to do - and this is what Louise was talking about - was showing them real life examples of how this transformation has taken place. So, how your other customers experienced a transformation from A to B so that other people can see themselves in it.

The second thing is something I've done for so long, and I think that the more that video has just become, obviously, more and more important and more centralized in social media content, the more important you just have to get a bit more creative with this. So, the second element is giving people a behind the scenes look. So, it kind of depends on what your product or service is and how you present this to them.

Mine is more stylized. The Ultimate Bundle is more stylized like a course, so I can go and do a loom video, but I kept linking to the loom video in my Instagram story. So, I chose to focus on this in stories. You could also do a green screen reel. There are a lot of different ways you could do this. And then, I kept linking to it in my stories so that people could go and watch a video of me walking them through the Ultimate Bundle and showing them what was inside. I also really like to link to these in my emails themselves as well, because I feel like people really like to see the behind the scenes look before they buy.

The third thing I did on social media was celebrate new customers by just creating a lot of hype and momentum that people were buying. I think that tends to just kind of add to that energy. I treat it like a party. You know, Louise talks about doing this with the sticky notes. A lot of people do that. People have all different kinds of ways of doing this. Personally, I just always did this by putting people's names on the screen and creating stickies on the screen. So, I've done that. You can do it however you want. I always like to pick really fun music, some kind of like party music, or music you would hear at a wedding, celebrate, or something. I just like to make it very high energy. And more than anything, I'm always thinking about painting the picture of what it's like to become one of my customers and what it's like once you join inside and creating a lot of good feelings and good vibes around that and making other people want to be a part of it naturally.

The next element I always hit in every single promo and I really double down on something I did super differently this time is sharing testimonials, user generated content, depending on maybe you have a product or your user experience using your product.

So, you know I've always shared testimonials and I feel like everybody shares testimonials. Here's what I did really, really differently this time, when I shared somebody's testimonial, I gave context. So, I would share a screenshot, like a little bubble of somebody saying something really nice, and I would put the person's name. Like, Louise is a productivity coach who was able to get her LLC started and do X, Y, and Z.

I would talk about what she was able to achieve. And I would kind of set up her comments because her comments in the group, for example, that I was sharing as a testimonial are kind of taken out of context. You have to remember other people, they don't know what's going on inside your community or what they're talking about, and so I kind of set it up and used it as a little bit more of a story. And that, I think, gave other people the opportunity to see themselves in that win.

So, I think it's really important that when you share testimonials, it's easy to only think of testimonials as I'm just sharing really nice things people have said about me so people know I'm legit. And I think that is true and that's part of it. And the other part of it is so that people can see themselves. I want to also think about someone seeing that testimonial and thinking I want to be the person that's saying that testimonial three months from no. I want to be the person she's sharing in about in her next promo. I want to be having that kind of success too. So, how can you create that when you're sharing testimonials? Don't just pop up "Louise is the best. She's so great. This course is great." Tell them who is Louise, what does she do, how has it helped her, what was she like before, something like that. So, hopefully, that's helpful.

Now, the next element is actually a recommendation from Louise, and it's not necessarily something that I relate to, but I wanted to share it with you in case it's helpful to you. But Louise encourages people to share her why or share your why for achieving this transformation yourself. Now, this doesn't apply to me because I have never had to get my legal stuff in order. I'm a lawyer, so that kind of works to my advantage. But I have had other experiences like having to bet on myself and having to invest in myself, starting my own business, and being worried is this thing going to pay off, am I the kind of person who could be successful having my own business. I don't know what I'm doing. I feel so overwhelmed.

So, I did share about that in a way, and I kind of tweaked this tip to be my own. And my why for achieving this transformation was that I wanted to create freedom for myself and flexibility. And I wanted to help other people. And I wanted to do work that I loved. And so, I did what I had to do to start a business. And so, for my people, getting legal stuff in place is what they have to do, so I just made it relate.

Now, the next thing is a direct tip from Louise that I implemented that went so, so well. I'm really happy that she gave this tip. Louise gave the tip of creating a poll sticker in your stories that gives people three options, asking them during the sale period if they've just joined your product, if they've already had your product or been a customer for a while, or if they're thinking about it. And then, every single person who tapped thinking about it, I reached out to them personally and sent a voice memo. So, that worked really, really well. We had several sales out of that. I posted it a few times during the sales period, so not just once. I would highly encourage you to share it before your fast action period ends, before your closed cart ends, all that kind of stuff. But that worked really, really well.

The next element is maybe a selfish element because I am definitely one of those kinds of buyers, but I always make sure that I have a few slides available of the list of features and what's included, but I make sure to contextualize why that matters.

So, one of the best copywriting tips that I ever learned was either literally adding or in your mind adding the words "so that" after you share a feature or something that's included in your product. So, let's use my product as an example. In the Ultimate Bundle, you get 13 legal templates, you get 35 on demand video trainings. And a lot of times when I just say 35 on demand video trainings, it's like, "Okay. So what?" I mean, you kind of get the point with legal templates, it's like so that you have lawyer drafted contracts in your back pocket when you need them. That's just an idea I would flip off the top of my head.

When it comes to the video trainings, I could really then paint the picture of what's in these 35 video trainings, why is that important. So, if we apply the so that method to this, it would be like you list out the 35 video trainings and then I would either literally write so that or I would think in my head 35 video training so that you know how to get paid, protect your copyrights and trademarks, and know when to accept refunds - I don't know - something like that, because those are three examples of things that you learn in the thing.

I could have also done it so that I focus on 35 video training so that you have a lawyer who's been in business for 12 years - I don't know. No - a person who's been a lawyer for 12 years by your side as you learn, as you navigate the sticky side of online entrepreneurship. I don't know, something like this, where it's like anything that you can do to paint the picture of why that feature should matter to somebody is going to be much better than just listing out 12 videos, three this, four calls. Let's say you give live calls, like four live calls so you have support anytime you need it. I don't know, something like this. So, just do the so that thing and either write it or write it and then delete it, but always explain why that matters to other people.

The next one you're going to laugh at me, but the next one I think we all try to use the question box. I don't know about you, it kind of depends about what I ask in the question box, but I don't always get a lot of responses. Even though I get a lot of DMs and a lot of engagement otherwise, I just don't tend to get the most responses when it comes to the question box feature. I have found when you make the question box more about them, then people will respond. Like, What's your favorite kind of ice cream? You'll get responses all day long. But when you ask people what do you want to know about my product. All of a sudden, everyone's quiet.

So, I'm not ashamed to tell you this, do not be afraid to ask your own questions. Put your own questions in the box. That's what I did in this last promo and it worked great, and I don't care. So, I went in and did the question box and I actually used the questions that people had asked me privately, either they had DM'd me or something, or they were the questions that people asked during the webinar.

So, I had specifically put up a question box asking people what do you want to know about the Ultimate Bundle before the sale ends. I think I maybe got one or two if that, I'm not even sure. And then, I started taking questions from the webinar and popping them in myself and then answering them. And it was awesome because I was like, I know people have these questions, so I know it's going to help somebody. And you know what's so funny? I put in the questions myself. I answered them myself. And I then would get responses from people being like thanks so much for answering this or people asking follow up questions. And I'm like, "Well, clearly you had that question, why didn't you put it?" That's just how people are. So, I don't know, I could care less. I'm here to sell this thing. It doesn't matter to me. Honestly, that's what I did.

The last element that I tried to hit was what was really unique and particularly unique about me or my method or my program, my approach, what they get, the sale even. So, I really tried to highlight I think a lot about what my ideal customer has an idea of about me or about legal stuff, like about contracts and getting business insurance. And there's all this stuff around it. It's hard, it's complicated, it's expensive, it's boring, all of these things. So, I always think about how that's kind of what I'm up against.

Is there anything related to that, that's not actually true about me and that that's what makes me unique? So, I mean, I've been told by a lot of people at this point that my way of teaching makes things very understandable, easier to understand, not intimidating, not scary. I hear from people all the time that I am not fear-driven, that that's something that really sets me apart from my peers. I don't know because I don't watch anybody else's content. But I am just telling you just report in the news, people write to me all the time and say like, "I was so glad I found you.

Other people I found like you were very fear driven and I didn't like it. And that's what spoke to me about you."

So, I know that that's something that sets me apart because I hear it from you, and so that's something I try to highlight during the sales period, because my idea is that maybe somebody who's watching this content is then thinking I'm not so sure I want to go do this because I don't want to just get yelled at and be told I'm doing everything wrong, or I don't want this to take forever, or it's going to be so boring and confusing. If there's anything I can do in my stories or elsewhere on social media to set myself apart and just talk about it in an authentic way to be like that's not my style, so I can overcome that objection, essentially, that's keeping you from buying, then great. That's a really important element.

I think a lot of these elements, including this one about what's unique about you or your methodology can be interspersed with some of the others. So, for example, when I shared testimonials, which was one of the elements we talked about earlier, and I told you I contextualize them, one of the things I also was very conscientious about was sharing testimonials that would overcome some of these doubts or fears that people might have about me. So, I made sure to share a testimonial that hit on all of the main objections that people typically have. So, people always have an objection about time, no matter what you do and what you sell, it's always they're afraid they don't have the time, it's going to take too much time, it's not enough time. There's always a time one, so I always share a testimony about time.

I always share a testimonial, what we call snowflake testimonials or a snowflake objection, where people are concerned that this thing doesn't apply to them because they're in such a unique situation, and they're different maybe than others, and they're worried it's not going to apply to them. So, I always share a testimonial that's like I was not sure that this thing was going to work for me, or I had doubts but then it turned out it was right. So, there's that one. There's always money objections, so there's always people who are like I wasn't sure how to make this work. I have a testimonial from somebody who was like, "Hey, it was a big investment for me. And guess what? It turns out it was so great that I did."

So, I kind of mix and match these as well, where sometimes you have to overlap on a certain day. And there's a way to accomplish many of these at once. Just like while you're sharing the behind the scenes look at your product and maybe giving a virtual tour of sorts, you could also be showing the features and what's included, which was another one of the elements that we talked about. So, there are many, many, many ways to overlap here and make sure you're satisfying all of these. And I hit these multiple times during the sales period, so it's not like you're just sharing a transformation once or behind the scenes look once. I want you sharing it multiple times throughout the sale period.

That was good, so I hope that this Part 3 was helpful talking about sales. I can't believe that next week is the last part of the series. Will you do me a favor real quick and will you reach out to me on Instagram, @samvanderwielen, or reply back to my email wherever you tend to follow me online, and just let me know. How are you liking this series so far?

Are you learning a lot? Maybe what is the number one tip that you've taken away from the series so far that you're going to implement? I can't wait to hear from you. And I can't wait for Part 4 next week. I can't believe it's the last part. I'll see you then.

Thanks so much for listening to the On Your Terms podcast. Make sure to follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen to podcasts. You can also check out all of our podcast episodes, show notes, links, and more at samvanderwielen.com/podcast. You can learn more about legally protecting your business and take my free legal workshop, Five Steps to Legally Protect and Grow Your Online Business, at samvanderwielen.com. And to stay connected and follow along, follow me on Instagram, @samvanderwielen, and send me a DM to say hi.

Just remember that although I am a attorney, I am not your attorney and I am not offering you legal advice in today's episode. This episode and all of my episodes are informational and educational only. It is not a substitute for seeking out your own advice from your own lawyer. And please keep in mind that I can't offer you legal advice. I don't ever offer any legal services. But I think I offer some pretty good information.