Building Your Sales Pipeline

Episode 48: Building Your Sales Pipeline, with Hannah Roth

Building your sales pipeline, a discussion with Hannah Roth. Learn how to be with right-fit prospects by building your sales pipeline.

Building your sales pipeline explained thoroughly with the help of Hannah Roth. She is Predictive ROI’s mad scientist and strategist (That is her actual title, by the way). Her background as a Fisheries Biologist coupled with her experience as a small business owner has allowed her to offer a unique perspective synthesizing data analysis with strategic insights.

Hannah often works in the trenches helping clients define and achieve their business goals, overcome challenges, and find new opportunities for growth. She loves helping people, and being on the front lines alongside agency owners, coaches, and strategic consultants is where she thrives.

Hannah holds a Bachelor of Science from Valdosta State University and is currently enrolled in Harvard Business School with a focus on Business Strategy.

I asked Hannah to join me on this episode of Sell With Authority to share her insights on building your sales pipeline that we use here at Predictive ROI in our own business development. It’s called seeding and opening loops, and it removes friction from the sales process.

And – HOLY BANANAS – her perspective and wisdom around this powerful business strategy will be super helpful for the next time you are meeting with a right-fit client!

What you will learn in this episode about building your sales pipeline: 

• How we define seeding and opening loops
• The ingredients in the recipe for seeding and opening loops
• Why it is crucial to keep your client’s lens in the center when seeding and opening loops
• How to seed and open loops with an existing client
• How to start building your sales pipeline and find right-fit prospects
• Ways that you can take and apply this sales process  in your business development strategy

Resources:

• Learn more about building your sales pipeline by continuing to listen to Hannah Roth in Episode 67
• Website: https://predictiveroi.com/
• Visit our newly expanded Resource Library
• Join us in our free How to Fill Your Sales Pipeline Facebook Group
• Order your free paperback or Kindle copy of our Book: Sell with Authority
• Learn another approach to building your sales pipeline with St John Craner

Ways to contact Hannah:

• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-roth-387a6b223/
• Join us in our free “How to Fill Your Sales Pipeline” Facebook Group

 

Building Your Sales Pipeline: Full Episode Transcript

 

Welcome to the Sell with Authority podcast. I’m Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI and my team and I, we created this podcast specifically for you. So if you’re an agency owner, a business coach, or a strategic consultant in, you’re looking to grow a thriving, profitable business that can weather the constant change that seems to be our world’s reality within you’re in the right place if you want proven strategies for attracting a steady stream of well-prepared, right fit prospects into your sales pipeline.

 

Building your sales pipeline for better conversions? Yep, we’re going to cover that. You want to learn how to step away from the sea of competitors so you actually stand out and own the ground you’re standing on. Yep. We’re going to cover that too. If you want to future-proof your business so you can navigate the next challenges that come your way, what absolutely will help you there as well.

 

I promise you, that each episode of this podcast will contain valuable insights and tangible examples of best practices, not theory. From thought leaders, experts, owners who have done exactly what you’re working hard to do. So I want you to think practical and tactical. Never any fluff. Each of our guests have built a position of authority and then monetize that position by claiming the ground, by growing their audience, by nurturing leads, and, yes, by converting sales.

 

But they did it by being helpful. So every time someone in their audience turned around, they were given a helpful answer to an important question. So their prospects never, ever felt like they were prospects. I also promise you that every strategy we discuss and every tool we recommend will be shared in full transparency in each episode.

 

Continue learning about building your sales pipeline by tuning in to our Seed & Open Loops Framework

 

Building Your Sales Pipeline: Hannah Roth’s Introduction

 

So you can plant your flag of authority. You can claim your ground and build your sales pipeline with a steady stream of writing for clients who never ever were made to feel like one of your prospects. So I am super excited for you to meet our very special guest expert today, Hannah Roth. If you’re meeting Hannah for the first time, Hannah is a member of our team.

 

Her Predictive ROI actual title is yes, mad scientist and strategist. So Hannah, alongside Erik Jensen, my business partner, chief strategy officer here at Predictive. They work in the trenches with all of our turnkey clients, all of our 90 day sprinters, all of our starting block members to help them fill their sales pipelines by building and monetizing their authority positions in the niches they serve.

 

I asked Hannah to join me for this episode of the podcast so we could slice apart and analyze one of our favorite ways of building your sales pipeline that will help our clients put into practice and that we’ve used for years. 11 In fact, it is a predictor for our own business development. But honest to goodness, up until like a few weeks ago, never thought, Hey, maybe we should record that episode about that.

 

We should actually teach something about that. The technique that I’m referring to is something that we call seeding and opening loops. And actually, I can’t take credit for that title. I’ll get to that in just a second. It removes friction from the sales process, and it works like magic. I learned the sales technique during our work alongside Darren Hardy, the publisher of Success magazine.

 

Attend our next open-mic Q&A to unveil more secrets to building your sales pipeline

 

Building Your Sales Pipeline: Seeding And Opening Loops

 

So back in the early days of Predictive. So let’s think about the 2012 timeframe. Darren was a member of our Board of Advisors and his work with us helped us raise our game when it came to business development, how we approached it, how we orchestrated the conversations with prospective clients, and of course how we closed sales. So during one of those meetings, Darren and I, were working through the script for an upcoming webinar that I was, you know, building out, and he said to me, Okay, remember during your delivery,   Stephen, you need to think about all the ways you can seed in open loops for the audience.

 

And I was like, wait, what? I have no idea what you’re talking about. And at that point, I had never heard of this term sitting in opening loops. And I certainly didn’t know that it was a sales tactic or technique. And I certainly also didn’t know how to weave loops into my script. But when Darren took a step back and then shared the strategy sort of behind the scenes, you know, the strategy behind this term and then how to apply the ingredients in the recipe, then I could see how it was going to be a powerful strategy for creating curiosity in the minds of the audience, motivating prospects to raise their hand, you know, because they wanted to have a conversation and all the while never, ever making one of our prospects feel like a prospect, because that feels like a whole lot of not awesome. So seeding and opening loops quickly became one of our favorite ways of building your sales pipeline because it never feels like you’re trying to close. In fact, it couldn’t be 180 degrees more different than the ABC method.

 

You know the always closing that is celebrated in many Hollywood movie scenes so I invited Hannah to join me because she works on the front lines with the clients, helping them put seating and opening loops into practice. So having her perspective and her insights as part of this conversation is going to be super helpful. So Hannah and I, we’re going to share the definition and how the overall seeding and opening loops technique works.

 

Then we’ll define each ingredient in the recipe and we’ll share several examples that you can take and apply to your next call or meeting with a prospective client. I promise you the insights and wisdom Hannah shares during this episode will give you and your team what you need to remove friction from your sales process and help you fill your sales pipeline with a steady stream of right-fit clients.

 

Continue learning about building your sales pipeline by tuning in to our Seed & Open Loops Framework

 

Building Your Sales Pipeline: The Core Value of Predictive ROI

 

Thank you, Stephen. I’m super excited to be here today and I’m super appreciative that you invited me back on. So it was authority. I know that you have had tons of interviews with amazing, talented, super-smart people, so I feel blessed to be in the company of those who have come before me. So thank you for having me back today.

 

Well, thank you for saying yes. Suppose you are taking time out of your busy schedule to say yes and to come on to the show to share your insights and wisdom about this really important topic. And it’s just so funny, right, that when you and I a few weeks ago, we were talking about seeing in the opening loose, maybe Erik was there, too.

 

And I think you asked us, hey, guys, is there like is there a blog post reserved video, or is there like a podcast episode about it? Like we’re talking about it all the time, and yet, embarrassingly, none of that existed. So, okay, let’s fill that hole and, and start teaching it in full transparency. So before we dive into the kind of breaking down the recipe, maybe a little bit more context around why it’s important to actually share stuff like this in full transparency, why it’s important to actually have a foundation of content that you can point to.

 

And you and I use this expression, I think it’s Erik’s eat your own dog. Like pointing back to like if we’re teaching soil or seeding and opening loops we should be able to point back to stuff, right? Like, why is that important to you?

 

Yeah, absolutely. I think, you know, one of the things that I love about our business is that we do eat our own dog food. I hate that metaphor. Anyone that has ever heard me say anything about that metaphor knows that I hate it, but it’s a really good visual to say, hey, like we do practice what we preach and we do, you know, we walk the walk, we don’t just talk the talk.

 

So I think this technique of sitting and opening loops is something that we do in our own business. We’ve found really good success with it, and it really helps our clients sell without selling our clothes, without closing, because that’s a very uncomfortable topic for a lot of people. It’s something that doesn’t come naturally.

 

Attend our next open-mic Q&A to unveil more secrets to building your sales pipeline

 

Building Your Sales Pipeline: Talk About the Pain Points of Your Client’s Business

 

So when we found that seeding and opening loops was working for us, it only made sense to share it with our clients. So yeah, I think that’s why I’m excited to talk about this today for sure too.

 

And as we get into this, everyone who just listened to you shares that actually that was a really great job of seeding opening loops. So it’s about setting the open loop of curiosity. So before I give the definition away, let me give that back to you in how if somebody were to ask you because clients ask you all the time, hey, and I’ve heard you talk about this seeding and opening loops saying, well, let’s go high level first and then break it down for me.

 

So as I mentioned before, I think seeding and opening loops is the way to sell without selling or close without closing. So I actually think the best way to structure this conversation is going to be breaking it down into two tracks, which are how to seed open loops with existing clients and then how to seed in open loops with right-fit prospects.

 

So, I kind of wanted to set it up that way. So now that we kind of understand how I’m going to structure the conversation and kind of explain this technique, I also wanted to kind of lay down some important things to keep in mind as we move forward in this conversation. So the most important thing when we’re talking about seeding and opening loops is that you have to keep your customers’ lines in mind.

 

And what I mean by this is, you know, when you’re seeding and opening loops, it’s important that you’re being helpful by speaking to a pain point or a business issue or a business challenge that your audience has, because otherwise you’re kind of hawking your products or services and you’re putting your needs in the center instead of your clients or your customers needs.

 

And most people recognize that and don’t like it. So one of the really great benefits of seeding and opening loops is that you can talk about your capabilities and your products and services in a way that doesn’t feel like you’re bragging. It feels like you’re showing up to be helpful. So that’s kind of like the foundation, I think, of what seeding and opening loops is.

 

It’s a way to offer help and be helpful in a meaningful way instead of just hawking your own products or services or bragging about your capabilities.

 

Yeah, because isn’t that it’s so common, right, that that it’s so easy like it is, you know, are tribe agency owners, business coaches, strategic consultants that when we have a launch or a new service offering or something, whatever, and that we go to our audience or more crudely to say our list and ask them to buy our stuff in it. It feels exactly like that.

 

Continue learning about building your sales pipeline by tuning in to our Seed & Open Loops Framework

 

Building Your Sales Pipeline: Think Of Your Clients First Before Pitching Your Product

 

Buy our stuff, buy our stuff, buy our stuff as opposed to, to your point, addressing the business issue and challenge. And so, why do you think it’s so easy to make that mistake?

 

I think, you know, I’m guilty of this, too. When you come up with something that’s new and exciting about building your sales pipeline, obviously it’s only natural to want to talk about it. And so for me, you know, obviously Erik and I work on the front lines a lot with our clients, so we recognize a lot of the different pain points and challenges and we come up with products and services to remedy those.

 

And sometimes I think it’s easy to get so excited about what you built that you kind of lose your customers’ needs, your client’s needs. And even though the whole intention around creating that product or service was to remedy their pain points, you kind of forget their pain points and the excitement of creating or building this new thing.

 

So I think it’s always helpful to be intentional about speaking to your clients’ struggles or pain points or business challenges because otherwise it’s really easy to get caught up in the excitement and the kind of inertia of your own, you know, your own greatness in creating these products or services. 

 

So, you know, it’s interesting, as you were sharing that, I literally had a flashback to some of the wise words that our mutual friend Robin Boler shared during the workshop that you and I attended in January when she and her Mercer Island team were teaching. And it’s so, like you said, it is so easy for someone to get enthralled with the insider, the creative, or whatever they’re pitching, you know, to the prospective client that we completely lose sight of why we’re there in the first place.

 

Yes, absolutely. And it’s I don’t think it’s you know, it’s not ill intended. I don’t I don’t think it’s because, you know, the people are selfish or we’re selfish or anything like that. It’s just I think sometimes the excitement and, you know, obviously our agency’s clients or coaches and consultants like our tribe, like, I think that naturally we’re helpful people and we want to help solve all these different issues for our clients.

 

Attend our next open-mic Q&A to unveil more secrets to building your sales pipeline

 

Building Your Sales Pipeline: Maintaining Your Client’s Attention

 

So let’s think about the two tracks and then the definition of seed in your opening loops, and then we’ll break down the ingredients one by one. So when you mentioned approaching in this conversation with this type of structure, two tracks existing and then right. So prospects, I love that you’re separating those two. I think that’s going to be really helpful. So does that mean that there are two different definitions or is it the same strategy applied in maybe two different ways or two different lenses that you’re looking to apply the strategy?

 

Yep. I think it’s the same strategy, but I think the lens that you approach is different. So obviously with your existing clients, there are some different goals that you’re trying to achieve versus prospective clients. So we’re going to kind of break that down into a more, you know, tactical type of example. So I guess if it’s okay with you, I would like to go ahead and start on the existing clients track and kind of get into that and then we can move on to how to apply this technique for prospective clients.

 

So the first thing that I kind of want to touch on is the goals. So with your existing clients, the goal of seeding and opening loops is so that they don’t run out of the future with your organization. So obviously this goes without saying client attention is so important and it’s often the easiest path to revenue, right? So hopefully your existing clients, know you, they love you, and they’re excited about the work you’re doing alongside them or for them.

 

And typically when we work with clients, we know that they have multiple business challenges that can be solved in different ways. But here’s the thing that I think we sometimes overlook. We know that they don’t. So we take that for granted. We take that knowledge for granted. But most of the time our clients don’t know how the sausage is made or they don’t know the different flavors of the sausage that we have to offer.

 

So, do we only have regular sausage? You have spicy sausage, like they don’t know. So I think a lot of times when clients come to us, they have, you know, some symptoms that they describe that we kind of trace back to a root cause. And typically there’s a few different areas that we could potentially help them with.

 

But they come to us for one thing, and depending on, you know, resources or budget or whatnot, we typically attack that one thing first and get them kind of the shortest path to revenue. So basically, I’m going to kind of give a tangible example of sitting and opening loops. So basically, let’s say a client hires you to revamp their website and you make it beautiful and it’s awesome and it’s functional, and they love it.

 

Okay, great. So let’s say that another strength in your organization is that you do SEO work or search search engine optimization. And let’s say another strength is that you’re a Google Analytics guru, and you know all about G four and everything coming up with that. So, you know, from, you know, revamping your client’s website the next logical step would probably be to start doing that SEO work and then tracking their metrics with Google Analytics.

 

Continue learning about building your sales pipeline by tuning in to our Seed & Open Loops Framework

 

Building Your Sales Pipeline: Let Your Client Realize That They Have a Future with Your Agency

 

So the key to seeding and opening loops on building your sales pipeline is that you have to talk about those products and services when you’re revamping their website. It’s not something you talk about really before, it’s not something you really talk about after. So I want to stress this right now because what I’m talking about is not a sales pitch and this part’s important.

 

Seating and opening loops is all about selling without selling and ultimately being helpful to your client. So I think the best way to do this is to ask questions. And typically you want to ask these questions at the beginning of your work together, and then you want to keep asking them periodically throughout. So some of these examples of questions in this kind of hypothetical situation that I’m talking about, you could say, okay, client, why do you want to revamp your website?

 

What are your goals? What are the outcomes you’re hoping to get from this work? And they’ll probably say something like, we would really like to see more traffic on our site or we need to be more visible to our prospects. We want people to be aware and engaged with our content and so that right there is the opportunity, you know, their business challenge and you have a viable solution because you know the outcome that they want.

 

So here is the seeding and opening loops part. You would say, typically when we’ve revamped websites in the past for our clients, we found that our SEO and Google Analytics package helps to achieve those outcomes. So that in and of itself makes them aware that you do more than just website revamping. And it’s even better if you can get actual data.

  

But remember, this isn’t a sales pitch, so you don’t want to overwhelm them with all this, like data and stats. It’s literally just one or two sentences. And you could say something like, you know, we’ve seen our SEO work increase site traffic by X percent, so that makes them lean in, and then hopefully they would say something along the lines of, can you tell me more about that?

 

And they might not ask it right then. And that’s okay, but you have accomplished the goal of understanding their business challenge. You’ve made them aware that your offer is more than just website work. You’ve potentially saved them time and resources because now they don’t have to go off searching for a different business to do SEO work or to do, you know, other work that you can easily do in-house.

 

And most importantly, getting back to what we talked about, you have established a future for them. You have given them a future with your organization. And so typically another added benefit by seeding and opening loops is that it kind of shifts you from an order taker to then a strategic thinking partner, because now they know that you’ve got their business goals and challenges in mind and you’ve got ways to tackle that.

 

Attend our next open-mic Q&A to unveil more secrets to building your sales pipeline

 

Building Your Sales Pipeline: Make Your Clients Curious About the Program You’re Offering

 

So it’s really an amazing technique and you can see just by those two or three sentences it completely changes the dynamic, the future, the quote-unquote sales pitch that you may have to have in the future. It just alleviates all of that friction to your point earlier. Okay. So as you’re going through that brilliant example I was literally thinking of, so how many times in one sentence can I use the word literally? For Pete’s sake.

 

Right? You know what? I’m literally going to do that anyway. So as you’re going through that example, I was thinking, this really syncs up with the recent sort of internal launch, if you will, sort of private launch of sales pipeline ignition 3.0. When I sat down to think about that, thinking of the principle that you just shared, how do we help clients not run out of future with us, right and end with the guiding principle of it’s not about trying to sell them a new thing, it’s about trying to be helpful, which is how you that is the foundation for what it is that we’re talking about.

 

Yes. So, as I was thinking about that, I went through our client list, the Who, to try and figure out, Okay, who might this really be helpful for igniting their sales pipeline? Okay. Then I started sending out emails and so forth to see if we could schedule some calls because with something new, I want to be able to get a little litmus test and have that conversation and so forth and see if there’s some good value there and lo and behold, great, awesome, wonderful conversations.

 

And now we’ll have several kickoffs in March for this brand new program. It’s still not public, but it gives us through that private launch the opportunity to test it and so forth and make sure that the 3.0 version is better than 2.0. Working with that same methodology that you just mentioned, it works like magic.

 

You know, again, from talking to your clients, like that they’re struggling with, you know, various pain points and various business challenges. And typically, there’s no silver bullet, one fits all solutions. So it’s important to have that feature for your clients. But you might be aware that they have a feature, but if you don’t make them aware of it, then it’s a moot point.

 

You know, it falls through the cracks because they have to know what you offer, and when you offer it in that genuine, helpful way, like what we’re talking about here, it suddenly goes from a, I’ve got to chase down these leads and I’ve got to try to sell and I’ve got to try to have this pitch because they come to you and they lean in and they say, Hey, tell me more about that. So it’s just really, really beautiful, beautiful technique.

 

Things to do in building your sales pipeline. It’s just that we’ve talked about it a couple of different times. It just removes the friction from the sales process and makes it less awkward. You’re just talking, and your insight is opening that loop of curiosity. And the way the human brain works is that when there’s that curiosity loop, we mentally keep thinking about what’s going to close it, what’s going to close it, what’s going to close out.

 

Continue learning about building your sales pipeline by tuning in to our Seed & Open Loops Framework

 

Building Your Sales Pipeline: Starting A Conversation Can Be Uncomfortable for Some People

 

Hollywood storytellers have mastered this. When you follow the hero’s journey, you follow act one. Act two is where the climax and conflict happen. Then, all the curiosity loops are open, and in act two, we close them in. Act three is the resolution.

 

Yes. And that’s one of the amazing things about suspense movies is that they leave these little breadcrumbs, and then you kind of think about them and they plant the seed in your brain. And so, yeah, it’s a brilliant technique. And I’m thankful for Darren Hardy sharing that with you so long ago. And I’m actually super thankful that we’re talking about it today in a structured forum so that way we can, you know, put our methods and put our madness to methods, I guess.

 

In that 100%. Okay. So is that all for existing? Can we shift to rates of prospects, or do you still have more on the existing piece? Yeah, I think we can definitely shift into the right-fit prospects. So this, you know, seeding and opening loops. Obviously we’ve talked about how it’s super helpful with your existing clients looking at it through the lens of a prospective client. It’s still the same strategy, but the tactics are a little bit different. So this technique comes in really handy because the truth is that most people feel super uncomfortable with sales.

  

There are a few reasons for this. The first one is that nobody likes to feel like they’re bragging about their capabilities. Most people feel uncomfortable talking about themselves. I personally hate it when we have conferences, and then I have to stand up and give a spiel about myself. And to be honest, I think a lot of people share that anxiety, and they don’t feel comfortable doing that.

 

So I think a lot of people are uncomfortable with the spotlight, and sometimes that’s what sales conversations feel like is like a performance because you’re, you know, pitching this great idea, and then you’re hoping for applause at the end. So, most people are not super comfortable with performing like that. And then another aspect of it is the sales conversations. They’re just not easy conversations if you start from nothing because, you know, it feels unnatural. You’re basically asking, you know, an almost stranger to trust you and then give you a lot of money.

  

And that’s inherently uncomfortable. So this is when the seeding and opening loops technique can really shine. So to set up this part of the conversation, I’m going to talk a little bit first about transitional moments just to kind of set a foundation because transitional moments, it’s a big topic and I believe you probably have a couple other podcast episodes going into transitional moments.

 

Attend our next open-mic Q&A to unveil more secrets to building your sales pipeline

 

Building Your Sales Pipeline: Breaking Down the Transitional Moments

 

So I’m just going to give a quick overview about building your sales pipeline. But for audience listening, if you’ve been part of the Predictive ecosphere for any amount of time, you’ve probably heard us talk about transitional moments. And if not, I’m sitting and opening a loop so that you’ll wonder what that is. You know, just getting by for a quick review, a transitional moment, basically.

 

It just represents the change in a relationship. So, as you move down the sales funnel, that is, as you move someone from part of your addressable audience to your addressable audience, there are moments in each of those stages where change in the relationship happens. So, we typically break transitional moments down into either speaking or writing. So, some examples would be if you’re better at speaking, you might host a free Q&A, or if you’re better at writing, you may write a helpful blog post with information that’s really beneficial to your particular audience.

  

So again, I don’t want to get too deep in the weeds about transitional moments because, again, it’s a big topic, but I did want to touch on it because it’s important to understand what they are, because typically ceding and opening loop opportunities happen during transitional moments. Yeah, So I want to talk about a tactical example. So for this example, I’m going to focus on how you would see an open loop during a Q&A session.

  

So, by structuring this and taking the example of the website designer from earlier in the conversation, let’s say that you’ve decided to do a Q&A session about the benefits of having an awesome website. And again, you are also skilled at SEO and Google Analytics, but this topic is only about website work that you do, and it’s important to remember that.

  

And I say that because you don’t want to overwhelm your audience. So at Predictive, we typically advise talking about one specific topic per Q&A because otherwise it feels like you’re drinking from a fire hose and it’s just too much information to keep in your brain. So even though you do all of these great things, let’s keep it just to one.

 

Continue learning about building your sales pipeline by tuning in to our Seed & Open Loops Framework

 

Building Your Sales Pipeline: Capture Your Audience’s Attention by Presenting Other Tactics

  

So for this particular Q&A, in this hypothetical situation, we’re going to say you’re having a Q&A about the website work that you do. So let’s say that you found all of these, you know, helpful metrics and data points about how having a functional and appealing website can really supercharge your business. You’ve got great engagement from your attendees. They’re asking all kinds of questions, and chances are they’re probably asking questions about the topic, which is making your website awesome.

 

So here is how you could sit in open loops during the Q&A if you see an opportunity for one of the questions. So I will use Drew’s example of Babette as an example, and I’m really thankful. Drew McLellan always created this kind of fake moniker avatar of that. So we have used and abused her, her namesake for many examples.

 

But anyways, let’s use that as an example. So, let’s say that that asked something about website traffic. Okay so awesome you could say something like you know, that’s a really good question, love it, and one that we often get asked by our clients when we’re doing SEO work are walking them through Google Analytics. That’s another topic that we don’t have time to dive deep into today.

 

But here’s a brief answer relating to our website discussion. So, spam with one or two sentences. You have mentioned the capabilities and strengths that you have. You’ve brought awareness to what else is on your products and services ladder, and you’ve done so in a way that doesn’t feel unnatural or pushy. So that’s kind of the technique that we advise our clients to do during their Q&A is just so their audience is aware of what other capabilities and strengths they have that they can leverage.

  

But there is, you know, so there’s kind of a flip side to that because we hear this a lot from our clients, too, where they’re saying, well, what if our attendees aren’t super engaged? Or what if they don’t ask a question where there’s a particular opportunity to sit in open loops? Another way to do this technique, if someone isn’t asking questions or if you don’t feel that you have an opportunity, is to mention that, you know, website revamping is only one of three tactics that your organization utilizes to drive traffic and increase awareness.

Attend our next open-mic Q&A to unveil more secrets to building your sales pipeline

 

Building Your Sales Pipeline: Their Curiosity Will Become Your Revenue

  

So you’re keeping the goals and outcomes in mind. You’re mentioning that it’s just one of three tactics so you could say something like So today during our Q&A, we’re going to talk about how optimizing your website can help drive traffic and increase awareness. But it’s important to remember that this is only one of three strategies we use to reach these outcomes.

  

We’ve also used SEO techniques, coupled with Google Analytics, to drive towards these goals. We don’t have time to deep dive into those today. So, our focus today will be on creating a functional, functional, and visually appealing website so that it’s not dependent on the audience to ask a question. But you are still seated in open loops, letting them, letting your audience know that you do have other capabilities, but you’re not going to talk about them today.

 

And chances are someone will reach out and say, Hey, I heard you mention this little nugget. Can you tell me more about that? We’ve been looking for an SEO strategy for a while, or we’ve been looking for someone to help us implement Google Analytics for whatever it may be. So you’re sitting in opening loops, you’re mentioning your capabilities and strengths, but you’re doing so in a helpful way that doesn’t feel salesy or unnatural.

  

And that’s so different than going up to a prospect, asking them to trust you, and then give you a lot of money. But so. Well, and you’re keeping that loop open until someone raises their hands or raises their hand, excuse me. And for the sort of the lead gen downstream from the thing, the Q&A, the whatever then mentions points two or three, and then someone says, yeah, I remember her saying something like that, but I didn’t get the full story.

 

Yeah. And I hope that people do raise both of their hands because then they’re extra excited about learning our methods for building your sales pipeline. So, hey, if they raise both hands, that’s even better. Good for you. Yeah, it does. It makes the conversation easier. And one thing that you mentioned in the beginning of this conversation that is so true is that, you know, there’s so much friction around sales conversations and the seating and opening loop technique.

 

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Building Your Sales Pipeline: Continue The Conversation by Explaining Even Further

 

It really serves to remove that friction so that you can have conversations, whether it’s at the time, whether it’s downstream, whether it’s in your email, campaigns, or whatever you’re doing. It just makes the conversation so much more natural and so much easier to have. And who doesn’t want their prospects coming to them, asking questions about their products and services, versus you having to go and do a sales pitch and try to try to bolster yourself?

 

Is this great and awesome? You know, this will fix all your problems or whatever. It’s so much better when your clients or prospects can come to you and say, Hey, I heard you mentioned this thing. And candidly, it’s been a big business challenge for us. Do you think you could give us some advice, or could we have a further conversation about this? That’s so much better and so much easier.

 

So much easier. And then like you said a few minutes ago, is that most people don’t like sales and you listed a variety of different reasons. But you said sales feels like a performance. And it can also be, as we know, incredibly stressful for a variety of different factors. But like when we need that next sale because of the financial pressure, it makes us, it sometimes will make you show up even worse.

 

It would make you show up stressed and tense and seem like you’re even more about you as opposed to their business issue or a challenge that you mentioned at the onset. Right. So this kind of relieves all of that.

  

Yes, absolutely. And I am a big believer. The data supports this, stating that 70 to 80% of communication is nonverbal. So if you go into a sales conversation or if you’re stressed about the bottom line and you’ve got to sell some products and you’ve, you know, you’re you’re kind of being a little bit pushy because the pressure’s on you, because I think it’s natural as humans, when you feel pressure, you try to offset the pressure on a something else.

 

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Building Your Sales Pipeline: Take The Pressure Away from You and Your Client

 

So you transfer the pressure into these conversations or you transfer the pressure onto your client or your prospect. And even though it’s so unintentional, and you never want to do that, they feel that, you know, because again, like 70 to 80% of communication is nonverbal. So they can feel that energy and that tension and it just makes it so difficult.

 

And there’s nothing worse than when you’re, you know, trying to have a sales conversation. You’re already stressed, you’re feeling the pressure, and then you feel like the air gets sucked out of the room because the client or the prospect feels that. And you never want a prospect to feel like a prospect because we’ve all done that. I mean, it’s such a simple example, but I always think when I go to a store in the mall, and I’m immediately bombarded by a salesperson trying to sell me pants, and I’m like, what if I’m not here for pants?

 

What if I’m here like a hat? Or you know what I mean? So it’s just like that kind of stuff feels gross to everyone. No one really likes to be made to feel that way. And so when you can seed an open loop, you take that pressure away from yourself, you take the pressure away from your client, and it just becomes a natural conversation versus a pitch. So this is amazing. So we need to come in for a landing. But before we do two things, any final advice, or anything you think we might have missed? And then please tell everyone the best way to connect with you.

 

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Building Your Sales Pipeline: Final Thoughts and Connecting with Hannah

  

Hannah, okay, so final thoughts. I hope this has been helpful for seeding and opening loops, especially helpful for our listeners who don’t feel comfortable with sales or maybe sales conversations don’t come naturally to them. I just want to reiterate one more time because the most important thing that you can take out of this conversation is that you always want to show up in a helpful way to your clients, and you always want to view things through their lens.

  

So going back to what we talked about a little bit at the beginning, you never want to lose sight of your customer because you’re so excited about what you’re offering because then it takes, you know, it takes them out of the center. It puts you in the center, and that’s never what you want to do because people recognize that and they don’t like it.

  

So if there’s one thing that you can take from this conversation, aside from the amazing tactics and techniques of seating and opening loops, just please always remember to show up in a helpful and meaningful way to your clients. And the best way to get in touch with me is via email. You can email me at [email protected] or you can find me in our Facebook group or you can find me on LinkedIn. So that is probably the best way to get in touch.

 

That is awesome. Okay, everyone, no matter how many notes you take or how often you go back and listen to Hannah’s words of wisdom, I sure hope that you do. The key is you have to take these two different tracks and how she broke it down for existing and for right fit prospects. Take this technique, the seating opening loops, break it down for those two different tracks, apply it, and put it into practice right away.

 

Because when you do, you’ll accelerate your results. And Hannah, we all have the same 86,400 seconds in a day, and I am grateful that you took some time out of your compressed schedule to say yes, to come on to the show, to be our mentor and guide, to help everyone move their businesses onward to that next level. Thank you so much, Hannah.

 

Thank you for having me, and I hope this was a helpful discussion about building your sales pipeline. And if anyone has any additional questions about this, feel free to email me. I’m happy to help or happy to talk through anything, including any of the loops that we’ve seeded and opened. So feel free to contact me if you need any additional help. And   Stephen, thank you so much for having me today.

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