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Welcome to Shiny New Clients, the marketing podcast that helps you attract shiny new clients to your business. We'll talk about social media, what makes people buy, how to go viral, and marketing psychology all in 20 minutes or less. Whether you're a coach, a stylist or a wedding planner, if you've got a service based business to sell, this is the show you need to fill your calendar. I'm Jenna Warner, your new marketing coach and this is Shiny New New Clients.

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The other day I was typing away in my direct messages on Instagram and someone said to me, jenna, this is the weirdest sales conversation I've ever been a part of. I thought that was hilarious because I was not looking at it like a sales conversation. I wasn't trying to sell her anything. As a matter of fact, the offer that I thought would be best for her, I don't have available right now. Here's where the confusion came in. She she was expecting to be sold to. And my intention when I'm having a conversation with a small business owner is to figure out what they need to get what they want. It's not to make as much money as humanly possible. Like it's truly to get them what they need. So I'm listening to figure out and try and hear what my leads want. And that's really important. Today we're going to talk about selling in the DMS on Instagram. And just to be clear, I'm not going to talk about like cold selling approaches like hunting people, people down and messaging them when they didn't really ask for it. I'm talking about having the sales conversation. Once the conversation's already started, you're DMing with someone. You could apply this to your email marketing. You could even apply it to having a one on one conversation with someone, a sales conversation. But the thing about the DMs is it is a beautiful place to practice because you get time to come up with your response. A lot of people teach how to, you know, sell during sales calls, but that's really a high pressure situation because you need to come up with what to say right away and then you find yourself saying too much, shoving your foot in your mouth, saying things that you know the person doesn't care about at all. And then the conversation is is difficult to continue. If you're learning how to sell and you value doing it with integrity and not just using slimy tactics, DMs are really a perfect playground for that because you have time to be thoughtful as well as intentional and strategic with what you're saying I was actually just invited into two communities to talk about this, to talk about selling in the DMs. And there was a time when I would have considered myself not really qualified. But then I realized, hey, I sell hundreds of thousands of dollars in programs every year and a huge portion of those sales are happening from my direct messages. So I might actually have more authority to talk about this than most people. There are, of course, people out there where their entire job is to be a closer or an ad setter or whatever, to find people to direct message and, and close there. But that's not exactly how it happens for me. Typically I'm talking to people who already follow me. They probably already have a freebie, they maybe already have a mini course, and now they have a couple of questions before they're ready to jump into one of my main offers. So let's, let's look at this like we're talking to warm leads. And like I said, the first thing that I do and that you're going to do when you talk to these people is to figure out what it is they want, what it is they need. It sounds simple, but two things are going to happen when you figure out what it is they want. The first thing is you're going to ask yourself, can I actually get this to them? Is this a result that working with me will provide? It's simple, it's straightforward, and it truly is. Step one, can you get them what they want? You might know that they need something else. You might look at this person and be like, you know, what you really need is this. But that does not matter in this moment. What matters most is you figure out why they're reaching out to you and what it is they want. Because that is what they're focused on. That is what they're most willing to pay for. Picture this. Imagine you walked into a dress store. You walk into this dress store, you're like, hey, I'm looking for a cocktail dress. I have this really fancy event to go to. And they said to you, sure, sure, we have dresses. But also, those sneakers you're wearing are so ugly and so gross. Can I please just walk you over here toward our sneaker section? Because I am an expert and I can see your sneakers and I know you need new ones. Now how are you going to feel? Firstly, you might be like, yeah, okay, that person might make a few sales that way. Like, okay, well, I am embarrassed. Like, my sneakers do suck. But they came in here for a cocktail dress. And the expert, the expert is going to feel this desire, this pull to sell them those sneakers. Because they can see the sneakers and they're like, I could just fix those if I could just get my hands on those sneakers. But you need to listen. This is a sales setting. You need to listen to what this person came to you for. They're here for the dress. Sell them the dress. You can talk to them about the sneakers. You can address the sneakers at a later moment. But if they're here for the dress, please sell them the dress. Now, let me give you a real life example. I went to a business slash mindset coach because I was having a very specific challenge. I'm not holding out on you. I'm not telling you what the challenge is. I can't remember. I can't remember. But I've used this antidote before, so I know that there was a really specific challenge. Let's say I was having an upper limit mindset problem. Okay? Say that was it. So I talked to her. She's like, okay, what do you need? Why are you here? She gets super clear on the problem. I am aware of that. I have called her to seek a solution for. She gets super clear on it. She tells me, yes, Jenna, we can work on that. Here's how I think that we could work on that best. She sells me a package that was several thousand dollars. I'm like, you know what? Yeah. I was hoping that I could just do, like, a one and done. I was hoping there'd be a shortcut here. But I do respect your opinion. I think you're right. This package is what's going to be best for me. Okay, great. So I'm already in my head. I'm like, I had a problem. She has a solution. This is how much the solution costs. I'm in. Right in my head. And then she proceeded to tell me, with this package, I also get this. I also get that I'm gonna be sent this and that and blah, blah, blah, and all these irrelevant things. And in my head, in that moment, I went, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Maybe I don't want this. This is not what I needed. I came here for bread and eggs. Why are you selling me an ice cream cake? You see what I mean? Instead of thinking about yourself as the person who's selling right now, think of yourself as the person who's buying. What are they here for? What's in their head? What do they know? What do they want? What do they need you to say to make them go, oh, finally relief. An answer without overwhelming them. Now, once you know what their goal is, you're going to want to restate it to them. You're going to want to restate it in slightly different language. This is happening for two reasons. And listen, I don't like slimy sales. If you've listened to this podcast, you know that I don't like slimy sales. But the slim sales tactics all originally derived from effective communication. We're not doing this because it's going to like psychologically trick them. We're doing this because this is how you talk to someone and get them into the right room if that room is right for them. You know, get them buying from your business if that business is right for them. So we're going to restate back to them what they said they wanted. And it's not usually as simple as address or a website or my wedding planned. Like, usually they're going to have given you a little bit more information. You're going to restate this back at them. Now they have the opportunity to go, yes, I see that you understand me perfect. Or, no, that's not what I said. And you know what? Sometimes it is going to be what they said, but once they hear it back, all of us do this. Once we hear it back, we go, no, that's not quite it. That's not quite what I meant to say. Right, or maybe you were wrong and maybe you heard them wrong, but we gotta get on the same page because you are only selling them a solution if it's actually the solution they walked in here for today. Let me tell you another story. One time I needed one thing and I interviewed so many people to give me this one thing. Hmm. Am I willing to give you details on this one? Sure, I am. I was running my agency and I had like a million plates spinning in the air all times. And most of my project management was happening like on paper or in my head. And I needed an operations manager to come in, look at our pipeline, and organize it into project management software. And I have this thing where I am so bad at putting tasks in order. I don't know where this came from. I remember when I was in my early 20s, I had all these really like high pressure tasks to do all over Toronto. And I called my friend and I was like, I need to pick up this, but then I need to drop up this at there at this time and then I need to be here at this time. And she goes, yeah, okay, no sweat. I want you to go to A, then B, then C, then D. Sound good? And I was like, oh my God, how'd you do that? Like, I've always been bad at putting tasks in order. So when it came to put the social media deadlines for multiple writers, multiple creatives, all of these people into project management software, I like, my brain just like, would not compute. So I was interviewing all these operations people, like, can someone please just build out my asana? That's the project management software I still use. It's just like ClickUp or anything like that. So I talked to this person. They came highly recommended to me. And she's like, yes, okay, here's the package you need. She knew exactly what I needed. She like, she was good at sales. She like, I'm sure she said it back to me. She tells me what I need. I'm like, perfect, yeah, here's my money. And then week goes by after week after week. At one point she sent me, here's a breakdown of your profitability and where you should be focusing on in your business. And I was like, what? I never like, that's great. Cool way to over deliver. But you know what I want the thing that I asked for that you told me that I was gonna get and by multiple weeks in, I, I do not like doing this. I had to end the relationship. I was like, I need this to be over because it's been weeks and I still don't have what I came here for, which was a very simple ask and you've given me all these that I did not want.