Today, we’re digging into the final core component of the model: Your Low-Friction Sales System.
At this point in the Podcast Growth Engine build-out process, we’ve already done the majority of the heavy lifting when it comes to increasing sales.
- A (well-engineered) Cash Cow Offer allows you to do less, but better, more targeted marketing that doesn’t require you to add thousands of new audience members a month just to stay afloat.
- An Infinity Loop Podcast automatically communicates your key sales messages and positioning, and builds the Chain of Beliefs your customers need before they’ll buy.
- Your AAAA Lead Magnet gets podcast listeners onto your email list while also providing the most attractive, low-friction way to grow your larger audience, where…
- Your Ignition Sequence rapidly earns the trust and attention of new email subscribers, convinces them that your approach to the problem is right for them, and introduces them to both your paid offer(s) and your podcast.
- Your Minimum Viable Value Email Strategy makes it easy to send consistent emails… and deliver regular, targeted sales CTAs along with them.
With these components alone, you’ll see a significant uptick in customer and client conversions.
But there’s one more piece of friction still left to unlock.
And it picks up where our Minimum Viable Value Email Strategy leaves off.
Because what exactly are these “Sales CTAs” we’re sending? And how do we make them as attractive to our ideal clients as possible?
The Real Problem Your Sales System Must Solve
Most of us operate within crowded markets.
Which means our potential customers face no shortage of options for how to solve the problem our offer addresses.
But competition isn’t our biggest enemy when it comes to sales.
Instead, the biggest impediment to sales is audience inertia.
In fact, the more competition exists for them to choose between, the more likely our potential buyers are to do nothing.
In this state of inertia, potential customers get stuck in a perpetual cycle of research, tire-kicking, casual comparison, and evaluation.
Sure, they might click through to our sales page and give it a quick scan, but they’re unlikely to seriously consider checking out.
Nor are they likely to book a discovery call—which they know is actually a sales call—that feels like too big a commitment for their current level of uncertainty.
One of the primary jobs our sales system must address then, is overcoming our future buyer’s default state of inertia by getting them to take one, small, non-committal step toward our offer.
We do this by creating one or more Conversation Catalysts.
The goal is simple: Provide an attractive way (one that appeals to their self-interest) for potential buyers to engage in a no-pressure, non-sales conversation with us…
Which creates a bridge to a separate, more traditional sales conversation—which, if you’re attracting the right people, they will often ask for outright.
Attributes of Good Conversation Catalysts
You can think of Conversation Catalysts as internal lead magnets.
Much like a traditional lead magnet generally signals an increasing level of interest and commitment from a casual audience member, a Conversation Catalyst does the same for those who are already following your work more closely.
The difference is a Conversation Catalyst requires a little more commitment, engagement, and effort from both your audience and you.
Like lead magnets, Conversation Catalysts come in many forms, which will differ depending on your business, offers, etc.
Some of the most common types of Conversation Catalysts include:
- Call Magnets — Attractive, value-forward (explicitly non-sales oriented) offers for your audience to get on a short call to chat with you
- Subscriber-only live Q&As, Open Houses, workshops, etc
- Prompts for your subscribers to reply to an email for you to send them a resource
- Prompts for your subscribers to reply to get sent info on one of your paid offers (rather than simply pointing them to a sales page)
- And more
Regardless of the type of Conversation Catalyst(s) you install, they should meet the following criteria:
- Attractive — The goal is to overcome inertia. To do that, we need to offer something obviously valuable and desirable to our ideal buyers to get them to engage.
- Open a conversation — This conversation can be via email, text, DM, or live via Zoom or phone. The goal is simply to engage your audience members and open a forum to ask questions about their situation, provide value, and help them convince themselves that you can help them solve their problem.
- Have some qualification criteria — These conversations take time. As such, you want to do as much as you can to limit the conversations only to those who meet certain pre-established criteria you use to screen for ideal clients. Ie. “If you’re ____________, and you’re struggling with ____________, and you’ve already tried ____________, then [Conversation Catalyst CTA].”
As with your external lead magnets, it’s best to start with one strong, primary Conversation Catalyst and then build out more specific, targeted versions from there.
Moving Up The Sales Ladder
Once you’ve opened up a conversation with an audience member, your job is simple:
Ask questions and assess fit.
Your job is not to convince—let alone pressure—anyone that they need your offer.
Instead, it’s to ask questions that help your potential buyers better see & understand:
- Where they currently are
- Where they want to be
- The specific problems they see as currently blocking their way
- The scope of obstacles and work that is standing between where they are now and where they want to be (which is probably much more substantial than they were thinking)
- That they don’t have a realistic or specific plan for how they’re going to solve them
By asking these questions and then letting your potential buyers lead the conversation, many of them will naturally begin to ask exactly if and how you can help.
If you’ve designed and articulated your offer correctly and have screened for the right people, simply talking through your offer is often enough to convince the right people to sign up on the spot.
No pressure.
No convincing.
No discomfort for either you or your audience.
Simply a friendly, useful, value-driven conversation that naturally leads to a discussion about your paid offer(s).
With a system like this in place, not only do you end up selling more, but you might even end up enjoying the process.
This is how sales should work.
And with the full Podcast Growth Engine Model in place, it does.
