Expand, Engage and Convert: Three Ways to See Growth with Josh Coats
Episode 447: Show Notes
Today’s guest is Josh Coats, #1 best-selling author of F*** Leadership, a leaders’ guide for every network marketer so that they can get out of their heads and lead better. With a background in life coaching, Josh teaches masterminds and coaching programs. While today’s conversation is centered around network marketing, the message is much broader than that. Josh is into marketing made simple — Easy, fun, simple marketing that works. So, we go over the three categories that he walks through within his business when sales might be slow or he reaches a plateau or there’s something that’s just not driving. These three areas are his go-tos to see what could be done better. Josh gives us some strategy examples in these three categories, so you can simply copy and paste them into your business.
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Along with this, we also dive into freemiums and how to convert without feeling like you’re selling all the time, while also still feeling like you’re engaging in a way that doesn’t take all your time, but creates really good results. This episode is packed to the brim with ideas, so you might need to stop and pause and back up. We get down to such a granular level, that, at times, this feels like a one-on-one coaching session. Be sure to tune in today!
Whether You Like It or Not, You’re in The Sales Business
While these words may be hard to hear for some, there’s no point in beating around the bush — Whatever job you have, it’s a sales job! From network marketing to owning your own business, everything is about sales. This is the view Josh takes, and we could not agree with him more. While Josh has not done MLM himself, as a life coach, this world welcomed him. He realized that although we are inundated with seemingly different marketing principles from a variety of industries, they are, in fact, universal. Good marketing is simple and when done correctly can be incredibly effective in achieving the desired sale. Yes, it’s perhaps a bitter pill to swallow to realize you have a sales job, but the sooner you come to terms with it, the quicker you can do what needs to be done to sell what needs to be sold. None of us are out here just to share our stories for the sake of it. We are sharing them to connect to a potential audience to get the sales ball rolling. Josh reminds us that while stories are not what gets you paid, they get people curious, a crucial step in a marketing journey.
Taking Stock: Three Areas Josh Checks into When Something is Off
For Josh, marketing is supposed to be simple. When it gets too complicated, he loses focus and motivation and winds up spending hours making pretty doodles on Canva. This is why he has narrowed down his business to three key areas — Expand, engage, and convert. Josh begins by diving into what expanding means to him. In business, it’s vital to get in front of new people constantly. While 10% of audiences are ‘lifers,’ there is a constant flurry of newcomers, which is why Josh knows the value of getting in front of new people in whatever way he can. He then delves into how he engages with people. It's important to remember that people want to do business with those they know, like, and trust, which is why sharing your story is key. By connecting with others and meeting them where they are, you are more likely to forge a deep connection where you build high levels of trust. Josh is unapologetic about spending large sums of money on ads to stay in front of his audience however he can. He then sheds light on the final of the three aspects – convert – which is how he asks for a sale. After putting a great deal of time into the backend of his business, he has been finding some interesting ways to get his audience through the sales funnel that he shares with us.
Expand Your Reach: How to Build Trust and Grow Your Audience
We know tackling these three aspects of your business all at once can feel overwhelming and you may not know where to start, so Josh breaks down the strategies that have worked for him and will certainly get the needle moving for you as well. He has two expansion techniques that he continues to use to broaden his reach. As a PUSH coach, who is all about the hustle, Josh finds a motivational quote online, puts his picture on it, and posts it to Instagram. By finding a well-known quote, people can quickly connect and agree on the message you’re getting out there. Josh’s second expansion strategy is to have a free resource that touches on your potential audience’s main pain points. This way you can show your expertise in a certain area while building a relationship and bringing in new people. Josh explains how he has used his book as a freemium to get newcomers on board. While his book was free, getting people to pay the delivery fee allowed him to cover his ad spend. Although this may seem counterintuitive, Josh wants us to know that we should not be afraid to give away too much at the beginning because there is a big-ticket item down the line. However, it’s much harder to sell an expensive product immediately when you have not given your audiences anything smaller along the way. By building up trust through the high-quality, smaller products you provide, it then makes buying the larger product a no-brainer. Josh believes in giving people so much, they feel silly for not taking what’s on offer. It’s important to understand this low-price upsell is not the same as marking everything down, so keep that in mind.
Grab Audience’s Attention: Tips on How to Truly Engage People
Although emails are not as sexy as social media platforms, Josh is all about them, and he writes about three or four value-based emails weekly. While Instagram is great, people come there for entertainment primarily, which is not a bad thing, but this is where emails really stand out. Because no one likes getting emails, if people open them, it shows their desire for engagement. It's your chance to truly add value to your audience. For Josh, 80% of his sales come through his emails and this is because he signs off each newsletter with three of his favorite sellers. This may seem like an aggressive approach, but it’s still about adding value to your audience. If people like your vibe, the links will not even bother them. When you’re starting out, emails are particularly effective because you can see who is opening your links, and you can reach people directly. For instance, if someone has clicked on a specific link, you can write people an email with a hard call to action. Once you are in people’s inbox, you can talk to them in a totally different way, so it’s super important to leverage this power and engage with them in a meaningful way.
The Hard Sell: Some Techniques to Get Customers Over the Finish Line
The ultimate goal of all of this is to get people to buy what you are selling, and Josh shares his techniques for getting people over the finish line. He uses his free webinars for a dual purpose — to find new people and to say something new to his old, faithful audience. By getting his warm market to be the ultimate hype man, Josh has found people reconvert easily. Josh shares how he uses a short survey with his freemium to get people’s information. By using the data they have provided, he is then able to write targeted emails that answer their specific pain points. What's crucial in getting people to the end of the sales funnel, is giving them little teaser products, so that audiences know what they will be getting if they make a larger financial and time commitment. So, if you’re in the fitness industry, this could mean offering a free five-day training plan or a sneak peek of an eating plan you have created. Remember to give people a taste of the bigger product. Josh has done this himself and managed to build his life coaching business to generate $20,000 a month by simply offering free calls. So, it’s certainly within your reach!
Quote This
Stories definitely sell, but just sharing your stories isn’t what gets you paid. It’s just what gets people curious.
—Josh Coats
Highlights
Whether You Like It or Not, You’re in The Sales Business. [0:07:43.0]
Taking Stock: Three Areas Josh Checks into When Something is Off. [0:10:35.0]
Expand Your Reach: How to Build Trust and Grow Your Audience. [0:16:10.0]
Grab Audience’s Attention: Tips on How to Truly Engage People. [0:30:10.0]
The Hard Sell: Some Techniques to Get Customers Over the Finish Line. [0:39:03.0]
#TalkStrategyToMe [0:45:10.6]
Beginner level tip 1: Run motivation ads on Instagram; you can’t afford not to.
Beginner level tip 2: Take one post per week and run it as an ad to all the people engaging with you.
Beginner level tip 3: Use your quick-fix product. It’s easy to sell and run as a call to action to everyone engaging with you to get them to take the first step.
Expert level tip 1: Ensure you have a freemium that answers the number one question your people ask.
Expert level tip 2: Start doing emails to build a relationship and then a few times a month make a hard call to action for your main product.
Be patient with the things that really matter.
ON TODAY’S SHOW
Josh Coats
Website | Instagram | Facebook
Josh Coats is an author, speaker, and PUSH Coach who is best known for training the top leaders in the network marketing industry. He has personally helped five different people in two different companies to go Top 10 in their companies. Josh has also trained thousands of network marketers in his online business bootcamps such as The Art of Recruiting and The PUSH Mastermind. After only making two sales in his first year as a life coach, Josh took his business to social media where he built a brand that has done multiple seven figures. Josh travels the country speaking for events and retreats, and hosts monthly webinars are that are known for having attendance in the thousands. Josh has built a cumulative online following of 100k and still relies heavily on social media and email to build his business while working from a local coffee shop in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Josh's book, F*** Leadership, hit number one the Amazon charts in the first few hours and then went on to be an international #1 Best Seller in six different categories. The book is full of practical principles combined with duplicatable systems that will help you to produce more results in less time
KEY TOPICS
Sales, Simple Marketing, Building Trust, Audience Engagement, Freemiums, Value-Based Emails, Hard Sell
