Social media is no longer merely a way to keep up with your friends; social media is a platform for business. And today, we are going to dive into some authentic selling strategies for social media that will help you to close more sales in your business.
IE 217: Authentic Selling Strategies for Social Media with Nikki Rausch
It can be so difficult, especially on social media, to not come across as annoying or overwhelming when we are trying to make a sale.
So I’ve got Nikki Rausch here to share the 5 steps in her Selling Staircase, how to keep a sales conversation going with your audience, and the best ways to use social media to create that relationship and rapport that is necessary to close sales.
Understanding Communication and Conversation
Nikki Rausch is the founder and owner of Sales Maven, along with being a podcaster, sales coach/trainer, and author.
It’s pretty easy to find information on filling your sales funnel, but it’s much harder to find steps for what to do when it is time for that one-on-one conversation to get the sale. This is where Nikki steps in. Nikki specializes in sales conversations, whether it’s a face-to-face conversation, an email, or over a Zoom call.
Nikki is a Master Certified Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) which means she has spent a ton of time studying communication, how we speak, and habits and patterns behind conversation.
Sales Conversation Strategy
Nikki loves to teach people that being good at sales isn’t about being pushy or annoying. It’s about building relationships, creating trust, and being strategic about the conversation and what you say next.
Nikki believes that everyone can learn to be more strategic in their sales conversations. You can make it easier for your potential customer to make a decision based on how you communicate.
Following The Selling Staircase
Nikki’s most recent book, “The Selling Staircase: Mastering the Art of Relationship Selling” provides a framework that will help you get your potentials clients from one step to the next.
Having a process is super important to keep you from getting lost or distracted in the conversation. You don’t want to give too much away and overwhelm your client, or not provide them enough information and them not be fully convinced this is the product for them.
The Selling Staircase is broken down into 5 steps:
- Introducing yourself and making a great first impression
- Creating curiosity
- Discovery (finding out what the person needs)
- Proposal
- Close the sale
For people who are not confident in sales, it can be easy to skip one of these steps.
Unfortunately, when you skip just one step, you overwhelm, confuse, or annoy the person you are in conversation with.
When you have the steps to follow, and conversation points to go along with the steps, it becomes easy to sell your product or course.
What Is Your Sales Voice?
One of the mistakes that Nikki sees people make is showing up to sell with “dog-calling” energy. Think about the difference between how you call a dog versus how you call a cat.
For dogs, you are fun, energetic, and high-pitched. That can come off as way too much to the person you are trying to reach to make a sale. It can make them feel overwhelmed.
With cats, you draw them in gently. You use a soft voice and make them feel as if coming to you was their idea all along.
Always Have an Answer
When it comes to creating curiosity in potential or existing clients, one of the best ways you can do this is in the way you answer the simplest question: How are you?
Your answer should always involve something to do with your business. This gives that person the opportunity to express interest in that or change the subject.
If someone asked Nikki, “How are you?” she would respond, “I’m fantastic! I’m preparing for my next master class.”
You can do this on social media by posing a question to your followers and then answering your own question.
Talking With People Instead of At Them
Asking questions is the best way to talk with people instead of at them.
Often we are so excited about our course, product, or opportunity that we just start talking about it and completely overwhelm our audience.
Let’s say you just reached a certain number of opt-ins for your email. Ask your followers something great that has happened in their lives or businesses recently. After they share, you can share your milestone.
Most of the time, people are more interested in their own answer than they are in yours, but providing them with the opportunity to answer a question makes them feel as if they are in a conversation with you.
Make Time to Talk
After you ask and answer your own question on social media, someone might express curiosity. They might not have previously known what you did or what you offered.
You can ask for permission to reach out to them via DMs. You can send them a quick snippet of information about what they are interested in.
Your best option is to offer to set up a Zoom call with them to chat more. This gives you the chance to have a deeper conversation with them. Provide them 3 different ranges of time that they can choose from.
Making time to talk to this person really builds relationships and trust. Now the person is more likely to choose you to purchase from than from someone they’ve never spoken to.
If you don’t provide one-on-one calls, invite them to an upcoming workshop as your guest. And keep the conversation going in your DMs. You want them to feel like you want to talk with them.
You can send audio messages in DMs and videos as well. Just make sure you make it as specific as possible to the person you are sending it to, even something as simple as “Hey friend” instead of “Hey everybody.”
Don’t Be Condescending
Any time you start using “I” statements (like “I want you to know about this upcoming workshop”) you are talking at your audience. Instead say “Would you be interested in learning more about this upcoming workshop?”
Instead of telling people what they should do or how they should feel, ask them questions. Get them talking.
Avoid being condescending. Condescension will make your audience stop listening to you. You want to allow them to feel safe entering into conversation with you.
Building Rapport With Your Audience
You need to get “The Selling Staircase: Mastering the Art of Relationship Selling”. It is such a great read that will walk you through selling strategies step-by-step.
It covers your email communication and why people aren’t reading or responding to your emails, what language you should use to issue an invitation, how to ask permission questions, and how to build rapport with your audience.
Closing the Sale
If you have struggled with communication in the past, Nikki’s book can help you make the tiniest adjustment that will increase your results significantly.
When you implement what you learn in the book you will see incredible results in your business.
Nikki has generously offered my listeners a free copy of her ebook, “Closing The Sale.”
This book will boost your confidence when it comes to your selling strategies. It will give you ideas and language suggestions.
Grab the ebook today and Nikki will throw in some extra goodies for you!
You can also find Nikki on Instagram and send her a DM with any questions you have. And make sure you check out Nikki’s podcast where she hosts on-air coaching calls and success stories.
Action Steps:
- If you liked this episode of Influencer Entrepreneurs, please subscribe and leave a fabulous review!
- Join the conversation on Instagram by tagging Jenny when you’re listening to the podcast. She’ll send you a personal message whenever you tag her.
