How To Create A Limitless Sales Pipeline: Sales & CRM Mastery | Chad Johnson

Unlock the secrets to skyrocketing your sales and automating your CRM processes with insights from a true industry expert, the founder of the Create Sales Method. Our guest, Chad Johnson, shares invaluable strategies for small business owners on building a robust online presence. Discover how to effectively leverage social media platforms like LinkedIn for B2B and TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook for B2C to connect with your audience and drive engagement. Learn the critical importance of consistency in your social media activity and how to identify buying signals through customer engagement.

We'll break down the essential elements of maintaining a consistent sales pipeline and the role CRM systems play in refining your sales process. Understand the various stages of the sales funnel and learn how to avoid stagnation through continuous prospecting. By examining where prospects drop off, you can identify and address weaknesses in your sales approach. An eye-opening analogy involving Yankee Stadium will illustrate the profound impact of consistent effort versus the costly consequences of neglecting lead generation.

Our episode also dives into effective B2B sales strategies that prioritize understanding the buyer's natural purchasing journey. Hear Chad's inspiring entrepreneurial story and their transition from corporate life to founding a successful sales method. Get practical tips on optimizing your LinkedIn profile, leveraging AI for market research, and reducing no-show rates for meetings. This episode is packed with actionable insights and resources to help sales professionals and small business owners achieve sustainable growth by focusing on quality over quantity and engaging meaningfully with their audience.

Chad Johnson: CEO / Create Sales Method

Website: https://makeprospectingsuckless.com/

Blog: https://makeprospectingsuckless.com/blog/

#SalesStrategy #CRM #SalesGrowth #SmallBusinessTips #BusinessAutomation #SalesPipeline #LeadGeneration #SocialMediaMarketing #B2BSales #Entrepreneurship #LinkedInTips #MarketingStrategy #BusinessSuccess #CustomerEngagement #SalesExcellence #SalesStrategy #EntrepreneurMindset #SmallBusinessSuccess #BusinessPodcast #MarketingAdvice #BusinessPodcast #SmallBusinessPivots #SmallBusinessSuccess #Success #Podcast #SmallBusiness #BOSS #MichaelDMorrison #OklahomaCity

Chapters

• 0:00 Sales Strategies and CRM Automation
• 13:07 Sales Funnel Analysis and Business Growth
• 19:51 Effective B2B Sales Strategies
• 33:29 Sales Strategies for Small Business Success

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

All right, welcome to another Small Business Pivots podcast. Today we have a special guest just down the highway from where I'm at. Introduce yourself, because no one can introduce themselves like the owner of their business.

Speaker 2: 0:14

And what I do is I founded a sales method called the Create Sales Method and I show sales professionals and business owners small business owners how to find new customers at scale and grow their businesses.

Speaker 1: 0:43

Wow, what every small business owner needs to hear.

Speaker 2: 0:44

So they need to buckle up today. Where are you coming to us from in this beautiful planet? So I'm in the Dallas Fort Worth area and I work with actually, I work with businesses all over the world. I have customers here in the United States and I have them as far away as Australia. So the internet the internet has made that. Made that possible for all of us.

Speaker 1: 0:58

So you're saying, no matter where you're at on this planet, you need sales. Oh absolutely, absolutely so. Is that what we're going to help our listeners with, or have you got a couple other things up your sleeve?

Speaker 2: 1:12

You know, I think really what it comes down to is, yeah, we're going to help them grow sales, but talking about prospecting and really what the importance is, I mean, every small business wants to find new customers and the thing that they don't realize is they have a lot of leads that they're not even nurturing, that they're not even utilizing. Now they're looking for more and new and they aren't really seeing what they're missing. That's already in front of them as well. You know, I mean you take, for example, you have a small business owner and maybe they have a CRM that they're not using very effectively, or maybe they don't have a CRM at all and maybe they're doing some online.

Speaker 2: 1:48

You know, social media. Maybe they're on Instagram, linkedin, tiktok, whatever. And they're not seeing the buying signs from those potential customers that they have just in the engagement with their content. It's things like that that make all the difference in the world. And so, you know, I think what happens is a lot of small business owners get caught up in the weeds. They're doing the day-to-day things, they're trying to make sure that you know, everything's running smoothly and they're not really focusing on nurturing those leads that they have and really expanding their customer base.

Speaker 1: 2:19

Yeah, well, that's powerful. So let's introduce the show and then we'll just get started, because this sounds very beneficial to every business owner. Welcome to Small Business Pivots, a podcast designed for small business owners. I'm your host, michael Morrison, a small business coach and founder of BOSS, where we make business ownership simplified for success, so that you can own a business that runs without you. To learn more, go to businessownershipsimplifiedcom. Well, welcome back to the show. We are going to talk sales. Every business must have cash to turn into more cash and you get that from sales. So anything you want to start with right away that you see could benefit small business owners.

Speaker 2: 3:06

before I kind of ask my list of questions, yeah, I think the first and primary thing that every small business owner needs to do is have a strong online presence.

Speaker 2: 3:16

You know, whether you're B2C or B2B, you need to find the right social media for you to be out there and really sharing good, valuable content to your target audience so that you're growing your authority, your brand visibility, all those things. If you're not on social media of some kind, then you're really missing out on the opportunity, because the traditional methods of emailing and direct mail and cold calling they really aren't producing great results anymore, and so you need to meet your buyers where they are. Your buyers are online, so think about it Whenever you want to find information on anything, whether it's something you want to buy, something you're just curious about. What is the first thing all of us do? We go online, we Google it, right. We do something, go on social media, and so I think that's the most important thing to set that trend. All small business owners have to be online. They have to have a strong online presence.

Speaker 1: 4:10

Can you give some advice to the small business owners that are just so deep in their business they don't really have time to do that because they can't be. What is there? Probably a thousand different places to be on the internet, or more, so how can they decide where to be?

Speaker 2: 4:26

You know, really it's it's going to come down to. Are you more focused on consumers? You know, b2c or B2B. If you're a B2B business, right now, the best place to be bar none is LinkedIn. You need to be on LinkedIn because that's where your B2B buyers are. Oddly enough, 75% of B2B buyers use social media to make their buying decisions. Is that not powerful? 50% of those B2B buyers use LinkedIn as their most trusted source. So if you're in B2B space, you have to be there In the B2B space. That's where you've got your TikTok, instagram, facebook in the B2C, and those are great avenues, you know. Get out there with your videos, get out there with your message and really start building that presence.

Speaker 1: 5:10

Would you say or have some advice on how much time to spend, so that a business owner knows the frequency?

Speaker 2: 5:19

You know consistency is everything you know and each platform has its own way. You know if you're on TikTok or Instagram or Facebook, you know you could be once or twice a day. I mean really, you don't have to be doing it 20 times a day.

Speaker 2: 5:34

Some people are out there trying to kill themselves putting out content every 15 minutes or something. You don't need to do that. You just need to be consistent so that your audience is like, hey, I can expect something new once or twice a day from this particular you know, once they get involved, they can watch for your new content. You know, on a site like LinkedIn, if you're in B2B, one post a day, really every day of the week, you know, not Saturday and Sunday, Monday through Friday one really strong post a day and then nurture the people that engage with that content. That's really all you're going to need. And the way to not get bogged down in that is is if you're encompassing not only you know text, but you're using video and illustrations and things like that, you can actually make like one video and take pieces from that video and make four or five, six pieces of content, six pieces, you know, posts that you can put out on those platforms. So you, you know, utilize your time effectively.

Speaker 2: 6:27

And the other thing that I would say is take those redundant tasks that you have and automate them, and that's why CRM is so powerful. You know. You take even something that isn't you know necessarily, you know, like Salesforce, but you put something like PipeDrive or there's a lot of Zoho, there's so many out there where they have automations, chatbots that'll process your leads. They'll send them a thank you, you know, a quick hey, we're going to get right back to email. When they respond to a form or, you know, answer some questions or send in a query, I mean, and then really allow those things to share up or to shore up more time for you to create your content and for you to get your message out there. Do?

Speaker 2: 7:05

what's important and automate as much of the mundane things as you can.

Speaker 1: 7:13

So I know some of our advanced listeners that their business is a little more established and they probably have a good sales team, sales director, manager, if you will probably have a CRM, but I know a lot of our listeners probably don't know what a CRM really is because, if you're not watching this on a video, I'm holding up business cards. This is how most business. This is their CRM.

Speaker 1: 7:36

They have a stack of business cards on their desk, in their car, in their truck, wherever, and they just oh, yeah, I need to call Ron. Oh, I forgot to call Austin. That's their CRM. So can you kind of explain how a CRM works and how, how easily to manage it?

Speaker 2: 7:54

Yeah, and that's exactly you know. I mean, let's, let's go back to you know, crm is client relationship management. That's what the system is all about. It helps you make sure you don't forget to call somebody or that you don't, but what it really does is it will intake your leads. It will also help you automate your emails that are going out to prospective clients and your current client base.

Speaker 2: 8:16

It also stores all the data that you need to know about the history of your interactions with that customer, from the time you first met them to the time that, possibly, they came to work with you and became a paying customer and everything that's happened. And you need that wealth of information. You need to understand and have that history at your fingertips and not have to dig through a bunch of notes or flip through a bunch of tablets to go. Where did I write that note? It's right there. Plus, it also provides you kind of your to-dos for every day. You look at it and you go, oh, there's something you're supposed to get back to. Well, in the morning, when you go very first, go into your CRM and look at it, it's going to tell you hey, here's your daily tasks, here's things that you said you needed to do, let's go do them and hold you accountable.

Speaker 2: 8:57

What it really does is it gives you the ability to not have to rely on your memory, not have to rely on something that could be destroyed, like a notebook when you spill your cup of coffee or whatever. It's a place where all your data can always be housed, and those automations to shore up the time that it takes to do emailing and looking at all the leads and generating different pieces of business, your pipeline and looking at what you have in your sales funnel and all. It organizes everything for you and puts it in one nice, visible picture. We like to call it the dashboard, and as long as you're putting that good, solid, relevant information in there, that's how you know what your pipeline is really worth, what's its value, and it gives you the ability to even rank them. Hey, these are some that are really hot leads, these are some that are wishlist leads and everything in between. It keeps you focused and gives you that ability to really acquire new customers in a meaningful way, and it accelerates your ability to sell those clients.

Speaker 1: 9:55

What would be a good practice on setting up the stages for someone that's never had a CRM. I call them stages as they're moving along in the sales process. How could one establish that? Because I know a lot of people that I work with as a business coach the business owners. They're like okay, the CRM looks great, but this looks like a lot of work just getting started because they don't have their stages developed. So can you kind of give some advice on that?

Speaker 2: 10:23

Yeah, I mean, keep it real simple at first. I mean it doesn't have to be intricate. So the very first time that you make a connection with somebody, be it via email or phone or video chat or whatever it is, you put them in what I call a discovery phase. They're learning about you, you're learning about them. You set up a meeting to actually discuss the opportunity, your product, your solution, their problems, all those things. Now, opportunity, your product, your solution, their problems, all those things. Now you're in the meeting phase. Once you've given that presentation about your product or service, then you're in the presenting phase, maybe the demonstration phase, if you have to show them how your product or service works. Say, you're a SaaS, you build a SaaS product, or something like that. But keep it really simple so that you know where you are at any time you can look at your dashboard and go, wow, I've got 10 customers that are in discovery. I've got so many that are in meetings, so many that I've presented to so many that were in negotiation. You know, negotiation working to close, you know.

Speaker 2: 11:16

And then, of course, one business and lost business. You also need to keep track of that, because lost business is lost today. It's not lost for forever. You don't want to lose those people. You still want to keep in touch with them. You don't go okay, well, I lost that one, move on, you're going to get back to them in the future.

Speaker 2: 11:31

So I mean, really, it comes down to just keep it simple three or four different stages and when you look at your pipeline then you'll know where you have strength and where you have need. You know if you've got a lot of people in the presenting and negotiation phase but you don't have many people in the discovery phase, you know you need to be out there prospecting Because once you quote, unquote, empty that pipeline and either win or don't win that business, where's your next customer coming from? So it helps you stay in line with what you need to be doing. If you've got plenty in the discovery phase, well, now you know, okay, you're not moving your pipeline fast enough.

Speaker 2: 12:06

You need to be getting in with these people and going hey, we need to set up meetings. Hey, we need to have conversations, we need to talk about this. It tells you what you need to do and when you need to be doing it, because it also lists you know hey, this is zero to 30 days 30 to 60 days, 60 to 90. It tells you everything you need your timeline, your velocity, how much you have, what it's worth because you're going to put in there potential estimated value of what that sales worth to you. I mean, it's invaluable, the data that a CRM has for you.

Speaker 1: 12:35

A few weeks ago we had Karen Grill on and she focused on sales funnels. So how does a CRM align or integrate with your sales funnel?

Speaker 2: 12:47

Well, what it does is it gives you again, it gives you an outlook of it, takes those phases, those stages that you've set up, and shows you the value by percentage, and that really again goes back to highlight where do you need to be focusing your efforts, what are you strong in and what do you need to improve. Because it puts it in a funnel form. Discovery phase is at the top of the funnel and it's a big piece and it's going to have a certain value to it all the way down to the bottom where you're negotiating to close. And so that is just an important quick glance into being able to look at okay, again, like we were just talking about, I've got a lot of people in discovery phase, but I'm not having a lot of meetings why. It gives you the ability to go in and break down what am I doing? That's not getting meetings. It allows you to really analyze okay, I've gotten a lot of initial bites, but now I need to get into meetings. Why am I not getting them there? Or I have a lot in the presenting negotiating phase. Oh, what's going to happen in 30 days when I run through and completed all of these particular prospects that I have. I don't have anything in the top of the funnel to restart the process, I'm going to be sitting flat in the water with no growth.

Speaker 2: 13:56

So you need to be prospecting and finding again more of those new discovery people. So that's really where it comes in. It's more just a visual of the health of your business as far as consistent flow of revenue, and that's what you're looking for. You got to keep that consistent flow. You don't want to have the constant ups and downs. You want to make sure that you have a continual pipeline of opportunities and then you get to really learn.

Speaker 2: 14:21

At that point in time, evaluate your processes. You know, and you'll, because you'll see where are you winning or losing customers. If you're not getting past the meeting phase and you'll notice that you know 80% of the people that you get into the meeting phase are not getting into the negotiating potential close phase it's going to tell you hey, you're not getting there. So what do you need to change? What are you doing? What do you need to do differently? So those insights tell you where you're winning and where you're maybe not winning.

Speaker 2: 14:51

And that's what's really important as well, because a lot of small businesses are like why did I lose that deal. What did I not do? What did I not do? What did I not say? What you can do when you have a CRM is you can go back and you can look at the notes with those conversations and what you've put in about those customers and go, huh, okay, maybe you might've put in there, I missed this or I missed that. Now you're learning. How are you improving your presentation? How are you improving that initial meeting? How are you improving that prospecting piece or the negotiating piece? How are you improving that prospecting piece or the negotiating piece? You can start to see the trends where you need to work. It provides you that whole 360 view of not only the customer but you and your internal processes and what you're doing.

Speaker 1: 15:30

Yeah, those are great points, and I read something not too long ago you may know, of a different statistic, because you mentioned something about if one stage gets a little more empty than the others, you better go do something. I read something that it's night like whatever you're doing today, 90 days is kind of the average for what you'll see from your efforts today. So, in other words, like if you take a week or two or a month off from generating leads, in about two or three months you're going to feel that Is that kind of or do you have another statistic or a word of advice for that? In other words, be consistent always.

Speaker 2: 16:09

Yeah, and and you know that's that's a good rule of thumb in the B2B space. I mean, you know 60 to 90 days is where you're going to notice where your lapses were if you don't do something about them. But what that statistic doesn't tell you is the actual impact it's going to have in 60 to 90 days, because it doesn't tell you how long it took you to generate enough discovery or meeting phase clients to get to the close phase. So not only do you lose that time where you don't have enough in your pipeline, it doesn't account for the number of days or weeks that it's going to take you to start building that pipeline back up. And that's where the real loss is, because that could be another 60 to 90 days in itself. So what? When you feel it, when you feel that effect, then how you recover from it is usually an equal to a little bit greater period of time, and that's where the real how shall I say damage to the business comes in. So yeah, in the B2C space it's a lot shorter. It's probably you're going to notice it within 30 days, because you know it's usually a continual grind. B2c is very transactional versus. You know more relationship, sale and longer term customers being built in the B2B space. So I like to explain it this way and here I'm going to tell you a really quick story.

Speaker 2: 17:27

I like to tell stories. If you were, I like baseball. Do you like baseball, michael? Absolutely Okay. So let's say we're in Yankee Stadium, okay, and I took you to the very highest row in Yankee Stadium and I handcuffed you to one of the seats in that top row. Now I go down to the pitcher's mound and I take an eyedropper and I start dropping drops of water from that eyedropper onto the pitcher's mound and that volume doubles every second. I go one, then I go two, then I go four, then I go eight and you get the theory right Now Yankee Stadium's huge right. How long do you think that it would take from the time I dropped that very first drop on the pitcher's mound to get up to you in the very top row? How long do you think you'd have to escape those handcuffs before Yankee stadium was overflowing with water?

Speaker 1: 18:23

Oh my God, can't, even imagine.

Speaker 2: 18:27

Take a guess, just for the heck of it.

Speaker 1: 18:29

I've years, I decades.

Speaker 2: 18:33

Yeah, you know that's. That is exactly what a lot of people think. That's because the actual acceleration of that is exponential. Think about it's doubling in volume every time that dropper drops. Okay, believe it or not, it would actually take about 45 minutes, is that right? Wow, yeah, about 45 minutes. And the point at which you would have the pitcher's mound covered with water so that you could actually see, oh my gosh, yankee Stam's actually filling up, happens somewhere around minute 37, 38. So by the time you recognize oh my gosh, the stadium's filling up, you only have about eight minutes left before it's going to catch up to you, because the first 37 minutes were just getting you to where it's starting to really double that volume. That's what a CRM does. It shows you not only where your deficiencies are, but it shows you the exponential effect that it's going to have if you don't address it in a very short period of time. By the time you see that problem, it could be too late if you don't have a good CRM that's giving you those insights beforehand.

Speaker 1: 19:44

So compound effect. You know? Yeah Well, you're listening to Small Business Pivots. This episode is proudly brought to you by BOSS, where business ownership is simplified for success. At BOSS, we help business owners create their businesses to run smoothly without them being there 24-7. Our seasoned business coaches who have walked the path themselves provide invaluable guidance and support and with additional services like fast business loans some approved within 24 to 48 hours, comprehensive online courses, detailed workbooks and engaging classes, boss offers a wealth of resources to help you succeed. Discover how small business success begins with Boss at businessownershipsimplifiedcom. If you're enjoying the podcast, make sure to stay connected by hitting that subscribe button, giving us a thumbs up or leaving a positive review. Your support keeps us going. Now let's get back to our incredible guest. So your business. How does your business help with this sales pipeline?

Speaker 2: 20:52

What I do is I help small businesses meet their customers where they are, which is online where we started the conversation and primarily, most of the customers that I work with are in the B2B space. They are either small business owners and I also even work with enterprise sales teams in how to prospect online to meet those buyers those 50% of B2B buyers that use LinkedIn almost exclusively and that other 25% of B2B buyers that use LinkedIn also. I show them how to target them, put the right content strategies out there and then use the right conversion strategies to turn them into customers at scale. And the very biggest aspect of that is people say, well, how many more leads can I expect? And I go. It's just about more leads. It's about the quality of leads, because when you're doing it through that fashion and they're getting to engage with your content before they ever speak to you, you have the ability to remove a lot of the common objections, answer a lot of the common questions that you would face in a normal cold outreach situation where you've not had any engagement with these people.

Speaker 2: 22:00

And so I teach B2B sales professionals, be it small business owners, enterprise sales teams, and I even work with very high level sales, b2b sales representatives who are just looking to upskill themselves through some of my courses and that's what I teach and what I found and what my clients experience is that they close 40 to 50% more new business than they did before that. Even intrinsic things like, for example, I went to I'm working with one company right now huge, they're $150 billion a year company but they had a 50% no show rate to meetings coming out of their their sales development reps and it was because that, you know, these clients had no basis and they were selling the meeting, not the service or the product. Well, in just 90 days we took that 50% no show rate to their meetings down to under 10 in 90 days. So, even though their quantity of appointments didn't necessarily increase that first 90 days, that increase in quality exponentially impacted the bottom line. Their revenues and their sales went through the roof.

Speaker 1: 23:12

Wow, I can't say that any better. That's powerful stuff. So do you have any tips for? I know some small business owners. They try to engage with people but a lot of people have kind of just given up on their inbox and not responding replying. Any advice for how someone could start that conversation so that someone doesn't feel spammy?

Speaker 2: 23:39

You know, the best way to start any conversation is to ask a question and if you have had any kind of interaction with them at all if it's been an email if you've had some sort of interaction with them or you know a little bit about their business, you've done your research, you know something about them, their business is. Ask a question because what's everybody's favorite topic? Talking about themselves. Give them that opportunity, open that conversation and do their business is. Ask a question because what's everybody's favorite topic talking about themselves. Give them that opportunity, open that conversation and do not pitch pitching and a first in a first contact is not the way to go anymore. People don't want to be pitched, but everybody likes to have a conversation and that gives you the ability to understand where they are, what problems or issues they may be facing, what, what their goals and objectives are. You'll learn those things and you'll be given permission to then make that presentation. And this is in more of the B2B space.

Speaker 2: 24:28

In the B2C space, you know where you're more transactionally looking hey, I've got a product, I just want you to see the benefits and you know and go buy it. Then what you really need to do is you need to ask a question about how you know that's going to relate to a problem that's not being addressed by not having your product. And go right to the heart of it. Hey, if you don't have this product, how are you dealing with this? That's making your life miserable, you know. Really, go right at the heart of it because at the end of the day, it's all about an emotional connection.

Speaker 2: 24:57

You make an emotional connection with someone in the B2B space when you show you care about them, their problems, what their goals are. And in the B2C space you make that emotional connection by going I know you have this problem, this product solves that problem. How long are you going to live with that problem? So just make sure that you're dealing with your customer, whether it's a direct consumer or a business. Space is what is important to them. It's not about you, it's not about your products, not about your services, like how you know your life is this way right now. Do you want to make it better? Let's talk.

Speaker 1: 25:32

Would you recommend that someone start that question, that conversation, on the public forum or move straight into the inbox if they're trying to generate leads?

Speaker 2: 25:44

you know, I think in the B2B space, do it right on the public forum because you think about it, and I think most B2B professionals and B2B businesses know this there is a set of common questions and objections that come with every product and service. So if one person asks you a question on a public forum, answer it, because they're not the only one with that question. So answer it so it's out there so that others can see it, because you don't know how many people are watching. There are thousands of people that will see your social media and never, never, let you know they were there. They're not going to like it, they're not going to make any comments on it, but they're going to watch it and they're going to follow you until they feel comfortable with.

Speaker 2: 26:19

Okay, I want to engage with this person or this company. And in the B, in the B2C space, I would say, yeah, go right to some sort of individualized, very personalized email, direct message, something along that way that provides a strong call to action, links to here's how you do the product, get more information, whatever right away. So those are the two different variables between the spaces.

Speaker 1: 26:46

And I want to expand a little bit on what you said, because something we've noticed with our leads from social media is most of them because you mentioned something about a lot of other people see your question, they see your answer We've noticed that a lot of our clients that come to us have never engaged, but they've been watching and so they may feel like they were going to get stuck in a sales funnel if they engage or show that they're even interested. And I found that very interesting because you know, sometimes when you're in the grind and you're posting and you're like nobody's watching, nobody's liking, nobody's, there's people watching you, I promise.

Speaker 2: 27:26

Absolutely, absolutely. And you know you brought up a very important point that you know people are. They know they know, especially especially in the B2B space on LinkedIn they know, when they engage, that there is a potential that they're going to end up in a funnel and that they're, you know, somebody's going to reach out to them, but they understand that. So the the key there is to focus again on their problems or issues. If your content addresses the problems, issues that they're having, or asks them about common problems and issues, what they're actually doing is they're identifying yeah, I have that, or yeah, I see myself facing that in the near future, something along those lines, and so then it's up to you to approach it in such a way that you're not going hey look, I'm going to put this high pressure pitch on you. No, nothing like that. It's a way to reach out and go. I'd like to learn more about the problem you're experiencing, because, whereas the theme may be common, your individual experience with it might be different. I'm really curious to find out more. Now you're focusing on them, you really want to deeply understand it. You are understanding them before you're trying to ever offer them anything Generally, what I found in that respect, and what works for most of my clients is by doing that.

Speaker 2: 28:40

What they've done is they've had that initial conversation focusing on that curiosity and that person goes well, tell me, can you solve my problem, can you help me? How can you help me? They ask you. They literally start asking you please present your product to me. Now that you understand my problem, please tell me how you can help. And that's the difference that the power of that online presence, that social media, has, because they've probably looked at a lot of your content, they've looked at your profile, they've determined that they feel a certain level of trust with you that can, that will deepen over time. They feel that they know about your product or service holistically. Now they need to know how you can help them. And that's where that, that that authority and that trust and that voice comes into play.

Speaker 1: 29:25

Absolutely. I had a new client this week that we started working with and I'll never forget. I said do you have any more questions? And she said no, I've watched most of your YouTube videos, I've listened to a lot of your podcasts and I was like what? Nowhere did I find her. We weren't even connected or anything. So they're out there or anything? So they're out there. So I do have a question that a lot of business owners will ask and you might have some best practices on this when would someone put someone in as a lead? So, in other words, just because we come across somebody, I don't want to just bombard my CRM with a whole bunch of cold leads. At what point is it best to say, okay, this is an actual lead, let's start running them through the stages, versus just let me upload every contact I have and start there?

Speaker 2: 30:17

You know, generally, if you're working a good, solid outreach campaign be it through social media, email, things like that once you get that first acknowledgement that a problem exists, or you get that first nibble that there's curiosity in your service and your solution, that's when you put them in. You need to get that feedback. The minute you have that feedback, you put them in as a lead because at that point in time they've raised their hand. They've said you know, I'm open, I'm open to listening, I'm opening to checking it out. So you need to be prepared for that.

Speaker 2: 30:50

There's no reason to take a list and just go down the list because you don't even know if they have the problem that you solve. You don't even know if they're affected by what you do. You literally could be burning a bridge because in the future they might, and right now they'd be going this is ridiculous and block you or spam filter you, and now your emails aren't going to go through in the future. So look for that. Any sort of reaction, any sort of insight. That's that hand raised, that, be it virtual or you know you happen to actually get email response from there, whatever that's when you put them in.

Speaker 1: 31:19

You mentioned you know sales pitch earlier and I'm sure you, like me, probably get 20 to 30 a day of someone asked to connect, we connected and then all of a sudden I get this novel of everything they do. So what are your thoughts on? Let's say, someone does kind of raise their hand, as you mentioned, and I ask this because some people will take it offline and go straight to my email inbox because my contact information is on LinkedIn Kind of what are some good practices of? Okay, I think I have permission to email them. Is it you ask them or you just kind of do it?

Speaker 2: 32:01

So my theory or my suggestions for best practices on that are very simple. You know, if they connect with you, then thank them for the connection and say, hey, I hope you find great insight in you know my content. Please feel free to ask any questions. Now you've opened that door and you've put no pressure on them, right? That would be like within a short time frame after they connect.

Speaker 2: 32:26

Then what you do is, in a couple of days, when you put out something more that's again relevant to, maybe, the subject matter that they initially reacted, to go just send them a little note with a link to that piece of content, or send them a little note with a link to information on your website. Go, hey, just curious. I don't know if you check this out. I'm curious about you know any issues like this you're experiencing and I thought this might be beneficial because this is how we met and now you're just feeding them value. You're keeping them warm, you're nurturing them. You're feeding them value Because, remember, they were just an observer until they raised their hand. And you're doing that and you go hey again. At the end you go if you have any questions?

Speaker 2: 33:05

hey, I'd be up for just a conversation. No, if you have any questions, hey, I'd be up for just a conversation. No pressure, no sales, just a conversation about what you're experiencing right now. Put your calendar link in there or put a link to how they can set up an appointment with you. If you don't have a calendar, like a Calendly or something like that, Just go. Would love to have a conversation and understand your business more Really. That's the best way. Again, it's about opening a conversation. Nobody wants to be put into a sales funnel. Nobody wants to be put into a sales process. That's why cold calls stopped working. People did not want to get pressured into. I need a meeting and when can we have our next meeting and what are our deliverables?

Speaker 1: 33:41

And no, no, no.

Speaker 2: 33:42

They don't want that. They want to have their own kind of self-guided journey, as it were. The old saying everybody loves to buy, nobody loves to be sold. So think about how you buy things and treat them that way. How do you buy something? What sort of process or what sort of field do you like? That's probably what your customer likes too. We all have a pretty much similar MO in wanting to purchase something or wanting to learn more about something. So follow your gut. Don't expect your, your, your prospects to be vastly different than you or fall into your process because they're supposed to understand. They're the prospect and you're the. You're the seller. You know that doesn't work.

Speaker 1: 34:20

Yeah, no, that's, that's good advice. Well, I don't want. I don't want you to give all your secrets away. Let's move into your business. The. The title of our show is Small Business Pivots. How long have you been an entrepreneur?

Speaker 2: 34:34

So I actually started my business about two and a half years ago. After 30 years in corporate America, I decided, you know, I kind of want to just do something I'm passionate about, and that was always helping salespeople, sales professionals and small businesses grow. And so that's when I took the skills that I used in leading sales teams that I, like I did in corporate America, just taking those skills and teaching them to as many people as I could, and that's that's really what it was all about. I even when I was a VP of sales in very large organizations where I ran nationwide teams for multiple brands, I never stopped selling. I still made cold calls, I still worked leads, I still gave presentations and closed deals and I did customer service after the fact, because I never wanted to lose my edge. I never wanted to lose that current what's going on in the marketplace, because that was the best way I could help the salespeople that I was responsible for. They didn't work for me. I was responsible for making their world better, and so that's what I do now.

Speaker 2: 35:37

I help sales professionals of all kinds from all industries get better, reach more clients more effectively, close more deals, and that's what I'm all about. You can find me on LinkedIn. I'm actually a LinkedIn top voice for sales and it's one of the key things that help add to my credibility. A couple of years been really focused on that. I put out content just like I suggest. I teach exactly what I do. My business flows very successfully because of these practices and I help others do the same thing.

Speaker 1: 36:13

Any pivots that you've experienced in your entrepreneurial journey that you could share.

Speaker 2: 36:20

Yeah, I would say, the one thing that people really, really don't get about social media is it's not about having a million followers, it's not about I have to go viral every time I do something. I'll give you a perfect example. I was actually teaching a group for a company about a year, a little over a year ago, and they were saying hey, can you make viral content? And I go, yeah, I can. They go on LinkedIn, you can make viral content. I'm like sure, and I go it's not beneficial because I'll reach a lot of people. I have a lot of people go Ooh, that's cool, but they won't buy from me because they're not my target audience. I'd rather reach, you know, a thousand, 1500 people that are potential actual buyers than I would a million people in general because they can't buy.

Speaker 2: 37:05

The vanity metrics don't mean anything and that's the big pivot it used to be in social media. Years ago you needed the vanity metrics. You don't anymore. A perfect example like on LinkedIn in the B2B space. I know people out there that have 100, 200,000 followers on LinkedIn. They don't make a dime on LinkedIn. I know people that have 1,500 followers on LinkedIn and they're making six figures a year.

Speaker 1: 37:29

That is a great point. I've mentioned it before and I cannot say it enough times. There's two things that I'd like to expand on. That One is as a business coach. I've actually had some influencers call me with over half a million, over 500,000 connections, followers, and they can't pay their bills because they're not making any money. And then the other one is I'm in Oklahoma City, but I do have some people in California that I know that drive the nice cars like you would expect in California, being approached by people. Hey, can I pay you $1,000 to take a video shoot next to your car? To take a video shoot next to your car? And people that have the really nice houses are approached by people. Hey, can I pay you something to have a photo shoot in your house or your pool or whatever? So vanity metrics is a thing of the past. So I appreciate you sharing that for sure. So what are some tools, resources that you have available for people if they want to learn more?

Speaker 2: 38:30

So for me, what I do is I first of all, profile optimization, like for in the B2B space, on LinkedIn is your virtual business card. It's your first impression, it's your. Basically, you make that your landing page for your business. So I have a free ebook that anybody can have on how to optimize your profile on LinkedIn. That's my main focus, my main platform and as well as I also share with you some of my chat GPT prompts to help you research, find your best target audience, where they're located, how to reach them, subjects you should be discussing to start getting their attention. Those are my two biggest giveaways that people ask me for the most.

Speaker 2: 39:10

And if you reach out to me on LinkedIn, anyone can find me on LinkedIn and it's just my name, chad Johnson. Please search me. There is a few Ocho Cinco pages out there. I'm gonna tell you. You have to weed through a couple of those, but yeah, you can locate me there. And as well as you can reach me by my corporate email, which is info at make prospecting suck lesscom. Because, let's face it, in sales, the hardest part is prospecting. It sucks Well. I help make it. I help make it suck less. So info at make prospecting suck lesscom. Send me an email there. I'll be glad to have a conversation with you and send you my review sources.

Speaker 1: 39:51

Well, you've been a blessing to many today. You've been very helpful. I appreciate it, and I always wrap up with one question, and that is, if you had a room full of business owners of various seasons, industries of business, what is one thing you could tell them, as an entrepreneur yourself, that could give them a voice of hope or be applicable to all of them?

Speaker 2: 40:11

You know, this is what I tell everybody. It doesn't matter what the market is, it doesn't matter what the economy is, it doesn't matter, you know what's going on around you. What matters is is how clearly focused you are on your target audience's problems, because it doesn't matter what the situation in the world is, People have problems. They still need solutions and it's the people that make that emotional connection to their solution the best that win that business. So make that connection the best.

Speaker 1: 40:38

Great advice. Well, again, thank you so much. Wish you a wonderful day and much more success, and we'll I encourage everybody to reach out to Chad, get those pipelines full. And I encourage everybody to reach out to Chad, get those pipelines full.

Speaker 2: 40:50

Thank you, michael, I appreciate it being here. Have a great one, my pleasure.

Speaker 1: 40:53

Thank you for listening to Small Business Pivots. Please don't forget to subscribe and share this podcast. If your business is stuck, you need help creating a business that can run without you, or you need a fast business loan or line of credit, go to our website businessownershipsimplifiedcom and schedule a free consultation to learn why small business success starts with Boss. If you want to talk anything small business related, email me at michael at michaeldmorrisoncom. We'll see you next time on Small Business Pivots.