From Crickets to Customers with Steph Crowder
Episode 465: Show Notes
In this episode, we’re talking to our good friend Steph Crowder, a business strategist, sales expert, and host of the Courage & Clarity podcast. In her past life, Steph was a director of sales training over at Groupon but now helps entrepreneurs get more customers easily by working with those they already know. Today she is spilling all the beans from her extensive experience in sales, talking about how you can go from crickets to customers by following a three-step formula all about the problem, platform, and people, and we just share hacks from what we have learned here at Boss Project and in our side businesses. Switch on your strategic thinking, and tune in!
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Hear How Awesome Steph Is (If You Haven’t Already!)
Steph’s business is all about business coaching and sales expertise. Her background is in sales and sales training and she cut her teeth at the company Groupon when it was first taking off. At 22, she was what she calls a dials-for-dollars sales rep who made 100+ calls a day, but when she clicked how sales worked, she fell in love with it. Once she discovered how buyers’ psychology and the human brain worked, she climbed the ranks at Groupon, becoming the director of sales training where she gained a ton of experience and taught sales training around the world. She now brings everything she has learned into her business, which is helping people across all industries figure out how to make money in their businesses. Often people know where they want to go but don’t know the steps to get there, and Steph helps them figure it out. People who have a knack for sales tend to read people well, but the good news is that this skill can be taught if it is not baked into your DNA.
First Thoughts on Sales Psychology
One of the reasons why some of us have an aversion to selling is because we still believe it is about convincing somebody else to buy something. The reason why we don’t like this is that it goes against a societal norm – that you shouldn’t do to others that which you don’t want to be done to you. And who likes being sold to? How many of you have walked in a mall and pretended to be on your phone because the perfume lady is chasing you down? You need to distinguish between convincing mode and consulting mode: it is the difference between forcing a sale and finding a fit. When you come into the conversation wanting to help the other person and solve a problem for them, all of the sudden selling is fun and easy. When you lean into what feels good and when you focus on finding a fit, good things happen. People might even sign up for your product or service just because they like you and you have not pushed them into buying something they don’t need and want. Steph calls this collaborative mode co-creating, and what’s great about it is that you don’t need all the answers. You work with the prospect to craft the offer that is best suited to them.
The Three P’s to Getting Paying Customers
There are people who try to put stuff out there, and when it doesn’t sell right off the bat, they think it is because it is the wrong product or service, or worse, they are not cut out for selling! It might be that your offer is the solution to their problem but they fail to recognize it because you are not speaking their language. You need to show them what they need to see in your offer, otherwise, they may never become your customers even if your offer is the perfect solution. And how do you achieve this? Steph has a three-step methodology inside her Crickets to Customers program, which are problem, platform, and people. You shouldn’t understand only the problem you are trying to solve but how to explain it to prospects. When it comes to the platform, it’s about building a small but mighty community. Steph is a firm believer you don’t need thousands of audience members but rather a smaller, highly committed group of people. You might have as little as 40 members in a Facebook group and still sell out a group program, so quality is more important than quantity when it comes to your platform. Getting the right people in your community is just as important – people who are ready and willing to pay for whatever it is you are offering. We tend to think our next customer is somewhere out there when they might be an existing customer or someone who is already in your network. It is far cheaper to turn a customer into a repeat customer than it is to find a new one, so the strength of your community is an important piece.
Let’s Talk About the Problem
Getting laser-focused and crystal clear about the problem you are trying to solve is always going to be key. People get stuck when they ask, “What makes me stand out?” when they should be looking at the problem they are solving for people. There’s a ton of advice about picking a niche and knowing the target demographic but this does not give you a lot of information as to what you will be doing for people. Rather focus your energy on the problem and find your target audience by filtering them according to the problems they might have. If you are still struggling to define the problem you are solving, Steph has a neat trick of thinking of a real person. She calls it the one person test, which involves thinking of a real person (a friend, colleague, family member) you can help right now with whatever it is that you do. You then start to pick apart why that person came to mind for you; what made them ideal in some way? Dissecting their customer journey will help you see where they are right now versus where they want to be. Often the problem is more nuanced than you think. The problem might not be not losing weight but getting free from the culture of yo-yo dieting, for example. When you manage to identify the actual problem, you show that you get where people are at and can guide them in taking the next step. Often when people have achieved a level of mastery in something, there is a gap created between them and their potential customers because they don’t speak the same language – this is the expert’s dilemma. You should craft your offer in a way that resonates with them and addresses their problems while also giving them what you know deep down they need.
Building A Platform with a Small, Mighty Community
Once you are clear on the problem, you can move on to your platform. This is the stage where you begin focusing on building that small but mighty community; the group of people that will rally around one core piece of valuable content. There is often one cornerstone concept everyone in your community is speaking about, the idea that becomes the language of your community. You create insider content exclusively for this community, making people feel like they have found their home. Steph calls this piece a community anchor. Your community will feel good about being there because they did not have to be convinced. What is interesting is that while many people used freebies to get people into their communities, the tide is turning where people are drawn in by tiny, low-priced offers, so you can now charge something for your community anchor. The formula for creating a compelling community anchor, whether free or paid, is getting people to take some form of action. When people are asked to do something they haven’t done before, you capture their attention immediately.
The Final P: People, People, People!
The best way to start with people is on a one-on-one or small group basis. Through her Crickets to Customers program, Steph teaches people to do this with a small group program because then you are extending your existing community and you are testing out the frameworks that can turn into other things. Before Crickets to Customers became a full-on program, Steph first tested it out in a small group setting four times. She implemented everything she learned with the small group, and it was so valuable to work with real people. You shouldn’t go creating a big course without testing it out first and getting the experience with a smaller group. Just remember, doing something yourself is very different from teaching it. You learn and refine as you go and who knows, it might eventually turn into a beautiful, evergreen, fully automated course. But it starts with the small numbers, the working with people, the taking-them-by-the-hand.
Quote This
AGetting your people to actually do something, to take a step that they haven’t taken before, that is what makes it compelling; that is what makes people obsessed with you and your community.
—Steph Crowder
Highlights
Hear How Awesome Steph Is (If You Haven’t Already!). [0:06:40.1]
First Thoughts on Sales Psychology. [0:09:16.1]
The Three P’s to Getting Paying Customers. [0:14:52.1]
Let’s Talk About the Problem. [0:19:44.1]
Building A Platform with a Small, Mighty Community. [0:33:17.1]
The Final P: People, People, People! [0:39:30.1]
ON TODAY’S SHOW
Steph Crowder
Courage and Clarity
Website | Instagram | Facebook
Stephanie Crowder is a business strategist and sales expert who has coached thousands of entrepreneurs in all industries. In 2017, she launched the successful Courage & Clarity podcast and grew her own business to six figures in just nine months. She is a former sales training director at Groupon, but nowadays she teaches people to sell with ease by building a “small but mighty” community who can’t wait to buy from them.
