A Sales Model FOR Teachers

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Welcome, welcome to episode 71 of Teachers in Business. I'm Sara Torpey. I am your host, and I am a business coach. And I work with a lot of teachers. And today we are going to talk about a sales model that is for teachers. Last week in Episode 71, we talked about one of the most common sales models that the business world and online world teaches us. And why it is a tough fit for people who are out in the world as givers and teachers. We talked about how it's not really you that's the problem. It's the model. And so if you haven't listened to that episode, and you want to before you listen to this one, you can go ahead, you will be fine either way. But it is helpful context. If you have the time, it's like 20 minutes, not a huge thing. But so we are going to this week talk about the alternative to ABC selling. We talked about why it didn't fit teachers last week. And so then the question becomes like, if that's the not not the model, then what So this week, we're going to talk about a different model. It's something that I called A B G, which stands for always be giving and what I find it is like very much the model I have come upon in my own business, it is very much the model that I teach clients. And that I have seen be really effective in sales, especially for people that don't want to feel salesy or spammy, or overcomplicated or out of alignment. And I think that it's a much more flexible way to approach selling. And it's probably more in line with how you want to be as a business owner and how you want to relate to your clients and your customers. The really good news of ABG is that is a lot simpler to follow than the 26 steps you have to do perfectly every time of always be closing. And it actually works. So in this episode, we're going to simplify this whole thing. And it's yours from here.

I will say this is this episode is out the week of May 23. The other thing I'm doing in the next couple of weeks is something called UNcomplicated Time. So this episode is about on complicating selling. But if one of the other parts of your business in life that feels super complicated right now is your time if things feel like you're always catching up, you're always like running behind the bus, waving your arms going like Wait for me, instead of driving the bus, that is your time. If it feels like the squirrels are winning the boxing match or that you are always overwhelmed, please, please, please come join us it is a free, it's going to happen over email, it's going to take you like 10 minutes a day. It's totally free. And it is really going to help you rethink your relationship with time without taking a lot of time, which is magic. So please come be a part of that. And then if you are interested in coaching together, please let's talk about it. Like my clients are doing amazing things. Because we make everything simpler, it's a lot easier to do amazing things in your business when you don't feel like you're a scrambled squirrel all the time. So with that we're gonna jump in. Last week we started talking about always be closing. And we talked about it as a model of selling that is very much focused on the sale being the Queen selling first. It is really generalized. It's like well, this works for me. So of course it's gonna work for everyone. It's about, you know, is telling people they have a gap and making it big enough so that they feel like they have to hire you to fix it. And it's all about like, how many people can you get in the system in this mechanical process. And for so many reasons that feels terrible and like 100 different ways. What we're going to what I'm gonna share this week is what I think of as always be giving. And so here is what always be giving looks like it is truly about individuals instead of the sale being the queen of the castle. For me when I sell, it's really all about the person, the individual human is queen, because it's about humans, like it's about me selling something to other human beings and I have to acknowledge that that's part of their humanity. So like I am a human selling to humans. The other thing is, is that always be giving is really growth oriented instead of saying to someone, look, I see this problem you have. And without me, you're not going to be able to fix it because the gap is too big, and you're not going to be able to figure it out what I think works better in sales, selling, at least for what I do, and for what many of my clients do, my clients are in all kinds of different industries. So they're not just coaches, they work with students, they tutor, they, you know, run communications, consultancies, they organize, they do all kinds of things. What I like to say to people, what I think about when I'm selling is, look, you are a full, incomplete and capable person, just as you are right now. And yeah, you are going to figure this out with or without me. But together, it's going to be easier and simpler and faster. And I promise, it could be more effective, you can and we'll figure it out alone. But it will be more fun and easier and simpler to gather it is about you are a whole person right now, with or without me, you may have some problems, but I believe in your capability to figure them out. But it's okay also to want and pay for help. And that's really how I sell and it makes actually, every now and then like a coach I'm working with crazy. Because if they are thinking about thinking and an always be closing model where the sale is first and where it's about the gap that I'm trying to create, and I refuse to create the gap, they get frustrated with me, and I've definitely had people be like, this is not gonna work for you, but works fine for me. The other thing is that it's people focused, there's always been giving model is really about the humans. And it's about giving first, it is really me saying, Look, I'm here to help you, let's figure out the best way for you to get what you need. And it could be that that's working together and paying me. And it's possible that it's not. There's nothing wrong either way, like you're not evil if you don't hire me. But it really is like I am here for the service of others first. And when I am truly hear for the service of others, my business grows as a result, period. And then always be giving I find is also flexible. Because you know, however you want to approach humans as a human works, like there is no really specific 20 Step six step process, there is three steps and do them over and over again, and it's going to be fine. Do them as you, you don't have to do them as me, you don't have to do them my way on my platforms, you can do them your way on your platforms, and it'll still be great. Okay, before I jump into the three steps, because there are three steps in this ABG model, I want to tell you give you a couple of caveats. The first is that just because it's not a 26 step mechanical process doesn't mean there's no process. Like I'm a former math teacher, I am a process girl. There is a process, there are three steps, they largely go in order. But like you can't do them wrong. That's the thing. That's the difference between the always be closing process in this always be giving one. Like there are three steps, you have to do them all yes, you're going to do them a million times. No, you're never going to do them perfectly. And yes, it's going to be okay. The second night is that giving doesn't mean you aren't also selling. Because what happens is people hear giving, and they're like, oh, but I'm gonna give everything away for free. You can be a giver and make money, like period. And you should. The idea here is making sure that the value you give is equivalent to the value you get, generally what you're giving is expertise or products, what you're getting is money. But that value equation has got to match up. So that just because you're giving doesn't mean you're not selling I give a ton. But I have bumpers on the bowling alley on how far you know what the difference between what I give in my free Facebook group, which is a lot. But I given a free challenge like uncomplicated time versus what what happens in the relationship of one on one coaching or group coaching. So I'm still selling because I know the best way for you to grow is for you to invest in actually paying me to work with you. There's a different level of growth that comes from that. But I can do both I can give and sell in both can be effective. The third not is is really the the monkey wrench in the thing, right? It's the one where people are like, Oh crap, and it is that uncomplicated doesn't mean comfortable. Listen, we want processes to be simple. We want them to be clear. And part of the reason why something like ABC is really compelling to me. APL is it's like, do these 26 steps perfectly every time. And it's going to work, it seems really comfortable to like lean back into process. And the thing about the problem with that is like, it's not comfortable to grow. So when you are doing something like this, where we're uncomplicated sales, it's a simple process, you're going to still sell and you're going to give, and you're not going to be comfortable 100% of the time, that's just the truth of it. And if you're comfortable, 100% of the time, you've something's wrong, right? Like the as I had a client said to me the other day, she, I laughed, because I actually wrote a Facebook post about it. She said, she made me so uncomfortable, and then just paused and waited and waited and waited. And I was like, oh, and then she was like, but I like it, it makes me a lot of money. And then she moved right on. And I was like, Hall, Be still my heart, I was like a grief. But like, growth is not necessarily going to be comfortable. To make the money to get the big rewards in business, we have to take risks of the same size and taking risks isn't comfortable, period. That's the mindset side of this. That's part of what coaching does to it's like, we got to work on the process, but also the mindset of doing the process, because it's asked to get in our own ways, right? Okay. So this always be giving is literally three steps. It's real straightforward. The first step, and actually what's really interesting is the first step doesn't require anything but you. You do it all yourself, this is all a process internal this first step, the first step is to ground yourself, really ground yourself. So it's like, ground yourself in who you serve, why you serve them, what your expertise is, what the value of your expertise is, why you are the person to help the people you work with, and why the people who need you actually need you to really like put your feet firmly on the ground and be like, no, no, the work I do has value, the people need me, I am an expert in what I do is worth being paid for. If you are not grounded in this, that's part of the problem. And you know, here's the thing, you're this is a three step process. Sometimes I do a grounding stuff like this on Monday, and I can carry it all week alone. And sometimes I do it at 9am on Monday, and then I have to do it again at 11. Because we all relate to our grounding and our expertise and our value, and our confidence and all of that differently every day. It's going to change all the time. And that's one of the things in business that we think is a problem that isn't right. We think that if we aren't feeling completely, like an expert that something's gone wrong, we have to stop. But like, actually, it's movable. Like you're not always gonna feel completely like an expert. But when you're like, Oh God, I can't do this. You got to sit back and notice and go like, Oh, wait, okay, hold on. Let me reground myself, let me reconnect to my expertise. Let me reconnect to why I'm here, and why it matters. And then let me go to the next thing. Because if I don't feel like I belong, it's really hard for me to ask people for money. Like if I don't believe that I can help people. Why would they pay me? Like people don't buy maybe, like, if you're like, Well, I think kinda I could help you. Somebody would be like, Ah, no, thanks. Right, that's not a compelling sale. So that's step one. Step one is ground, ground yourself in your expertise. Step two, is also very simple. It's to connect with actual human beings. So like, figure out how you want to connect with people. And then connect with them. Like, be present, show up. Listen, be curious. Give your ideas, share your experiences, and leave your agenda at the door. And what I mean when I say leave your agenda at the door is this. You they are not there to give you anything. The person you're connecting with is a person who you're there to connect with and learn about and be curious about. They are not there to help you meet your sales goal. You don't need anything from them. You Your job is to detach yourself from your agenda and just be a person. Because if you show up and you have been on networking calls like this, I have to you show up and someone is clearly there, assuming you're going to be their next client when you were like No, I was just here to network. And you're like, Oh, this is super awkward, or someone is there to learn. Like they show up and they're like, I have these 15 questions that I asked everyone I network with, and you're like, Oh God, I didn't realize there was a Google form that went with this good guy. Add in like, their only focus is getting down their checklist, rather than like, hi, human. Let's be human. So honestly, this changed everything in my business, when I started to learn, and practice showing up present as a human and just connecting and letting the rest work itself out. And here's the thing, though rest works itself out. If you say to people, I do this kind of coaching, or I sell this kind of resource and blah, blah, and you just kind of move on when you tell them about it, and you're really confident in it. And then you're like, so tell me about you. They're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait, wait, I might need you. That happens to me more than you realize. But it's because like, I I'm not there to create a client out of them. I'm there to just tell them what I do and learn about them. And that's good. It's enough. I know the worry is like if in that's not what's taught in like the networking world. They're like, well, but you come with your agenda and your 32nd elevator pitch and you baba, baba, baba, I'm like, God, do you avoid networking, because it feels so complicated. Well, that's why you can just show up and be a person. And let the fabulousness that you are be enough. That's it. Step one is ground. Step two is connect. And step three is invite. That's it. So let us talk a little bit about this invitation step this is, you know, they're all important steps. They're all equally important. But this one is the one we tend to skip. So you might ground and be like, I am an expert. And then you connect, and then you forget to say to people like oh, I have this thing, I think it'd be great for you, I'd love to invite you to it. It's an invitation. Here's the thing, I always think about this, like a party, like I am the host of a really amazing party. And my job is to just invite people that I think would be fun. You are a party host, you at your party are going to do something that they need or want to learn. So you say to them, like I'm having this party, it would be perfect for what you're trying to do here you should come. And then your job as the party host is to respect their RSVP. So for example, if you're like, Oh, I'm doing this great thing, or say, imagine you're having a party at your house, we tend to have parties at our house, because I would rather have a party here that go anywhere else, because I'm a homebody. So if somebody says to me, like, oh, gosh, no, I can't come to your party. I don't go like Oh my god, I can't believe I invited them. And they said no, holy Christmas. Like how, what was I thinking? What did I do wrong? You know, like, what if I did the invitation wrong? Like What's matter with me? Maybe I don't belong having a party at all? Like, that's bananas. You're just like, Oh, cool. Okay, we'll catch you the next one. Like you're not attached to whether they come to the party or not. You might be like, Oh, that's a bummer. But like you respect their RSVP, what you then don't do is like, follow them around and be like, Are you sure you can't come? Are you sure you can't come? Are you sure you can't come because that would be awkward. And you surely don't drive to their house and knock on the door and duct tape them and put them in your trunk and makes them come to the party. Like that doesn't work either. You're not going to talk them into coming to the party. They RSVP and you moved on. What happens when we sell is we like make an invitation. What we're taught in this always be closing model because it is all about the sale is when somebody says like oh crap, I can't make the party that doesn't work for me, or this isn't the kind of party I want to go do. We're like, well, but tell me why it's not your kind of party. And let me tell you why it actually is. Or if they say you know what, that doesn't work for me. Or it's not a good fit for what I do. You're like, well, but let me change the party and make it fit you. Like, y'all this is no, you don't do that with a party. Why are you doing it with your business? So your job is to be the host make the invitation. Tell them why it's gonna be an amazing party. It's like, Man, I make the best guacamole ever. And actually, I do. I am an excellent guacamole chef. And people are like, Oh, cool. I like guacamole. I'll come to your party. Like tell them why they should come how it's going to help them and then Be cool. Be cool. Be cool. With their RSVP because here's the thing. There are a lot of times where people like oh man, I can't make this one. But make sure you invite me to the next one. And you're like, Oh, I'm ruined it and then of course, they come to the next party. And they're like, this was amazing. Like, let them come to the next party. It's not going to be the only party you ever throw chill. A note on parties. Here's one of the things I think about with parties. You know, there's a lot of language out in the sales world about funnels. Okay. But like I think of about a party funnel, and not that kind of party funnel. I just realized how bad that sounds. I think about this party model, we'll call it a model that is kind of a funnel, but like When you think about parties in your business, you have different kinds of parties that you can invite people to. Some of them are closer to you as an individual than others. So you're going to, like maybe you start by inviting someone to a block party. And if they enjoy the Black Party, maybe you invite them to the street party, that's just on your street. And maybe if they enjoy the party on your street, you invite them to a party in your yard. And maybe if they invite the party in your yard, you invite them to a party in your house and come over for dinner. But like, there are layers of invitation. And this is what happens in a sales funnel. Maybe the Black Party is your freebie. For me, it's this podcast. And then there's a street party, maybe that's for me, it's my Facebook group. And then there's a yard party. For me, that's group coaching. And my house party is one on one coaching, maybe you don't have all those layers yet. But they come with time, like I'm three years into my coaching practice. And they came with time, and that's okay. But like, think about how you invite people at each thing, and what they need to buy into, right. So your real job as someone in this model is just simply just embrace the cycle, you ground, you connect, you invite period, sometimes you'll need to ground connect invite five times in one day, sometimes you can ground and will carry you through. Sometimes you need to you do a lot of grounding and you forget to connect. Sometimes you're doing a lot of ground and connecting and no inviting. You got to think about where you are in the cycle. So there are a couple of questions I was asked that help people make this cycle there's. So the first question is where in my business? Am I already doing these three things? How am I grounding? How am I connecting? How am I inviting? Because here's the thing you are? Give yourself credit for that? Where are you already doing these things? How are you already doing them? That's the first question. And then the second question is how do I want to increase or change what I'm doing or adjust what I'm doing to allow these three steps to work for me and my business? It's not I'm doing something wrong now. And I need to change. It's how can I allow these three steps to be as simple as they are? What do I need to do more of or change to to allow this to be possible? Do I need to create a space in my business for me to ground myself every day? Sometimes I do. Do I need to rethink how I'm connecting with new people? Do I want to increase the number of invitations I make? Right? Like how do you want to do this and then pick one piece and do it better? If it's any one piece, it's invitations, just so you know, start with invitations, it probably not making enough no one is. And then you go from there like I you know, it's interesting to me like I have a client in my group program called charting business success. What's really interesting is she's really good at grounding. And she's an amazing connector. And when she started in the group, it was like, Okay, now you have to invite people. And she was like, well, to what? So we went back to the grounding phase for her to really allow her to be like, Oh, no, no, no, I am really an expert in what I do. She teaches people to build schools to do independent run independent schools. And once she really grounded herself in that she remembered she connects with people all the time. And then she started to invite them and don't you know, she started a beta course and people jumped all over it. It was like, oh, so she added in more grounding, made a clear invitation. And suddenly, people were paying her it was literally that simple. And it's not always that simple. But for her, it was very straightforward. It was like, oh, oh, oh, I just had to tell them what they can get for me in the way to work with me. And I had to believe it would be worthwhile. So she's great at connecting. She just needed some other pieces. And then I have another client who I've been working with one on one and is now in one of my groups actually. And she's great at grounding. She like knows that she knows her stuff. She's great at saying to people like I can help you. But the problem she ran into at a certain point in her business is she wasn't meeting enough new people. And so it became very difficult for her to invite people to work with her when she didn't know any people. So what we did very quickly when we started working together one on one is found her ways to connect that felt really good places that she could meet people and have coffee and do stuff even in a pandemic. We built her like a plan for networking and connecting and meeting new people and don't you know it has changed everything. Now she is speaking and teaching in like bigger groups. Now they're paying her to speak and she's got no you one on one clients, and she's running her business in a new way. And the difference that for her was truly adding connection, because she was great at grounding. And she was really good at inviting, but she wasn't meeting enough people. And so it really is the simple the selling process. So for you, think about where you are in this, think about what else you need, and then think about how to add it. And if you're like, gosh, I do need more connection. I don't know how to do this, like this clearly is what I do with people as a coach. If you're like, how do I really grounded myself and then invite from there? Let's talk about it. The easiest way to get in touch with me is to send me an email. I am sara@torpeycoaching.com You can come in to my Facebook group and come play with us and Teachers in Business. You are welcome to go to my calendar on my website, which is torpeycoaching.com and book a time to chat, like calm. Let's talk about coaching. If selling feels really complicated, and you want help, because here's the thing, I believe in your capabilities as human, I've already told you that. And what I can help you do is what you're doing already better, faster, more effectively. So it actually feels like it's working and actually is making money. Then let's talk about coaching together. The next round of my small group program starts in June. Here we are mid May. There's a couple of spots open comm talk about one of those spots are talking about working together one on one, and then I will see you all next week. Have a great week.