Episode #56: (Sales Success Series) 3 Things That Hold You Back in Sales with Terra Bohlmann

Intro (00:01): When you give smart women a five-year plan, simple business strategies and a positive mindset. It's amazing how fast your business can grow. Welcome to the fast track woman podcast with your host and business strategist, Terra Bohlmann. She helps women business owners stop winging it and board the fast track to success. When she's not making high flying dreams a reality, you can find her traveling to random destinations, desperately tracking down Chanel, broaches, or sipping overpriced coffee drinks. Her purpose in life is to help you build a profitable first-class business, smooth out the bumpy ride, and finally have more time, energy and freedom. So buckle your seatbelt because this episode of the fast track woman takes off right now. Welcome back to the fast track woman podcast. I am

Terra Bohlmann (00:59): Your host, Terra Bohlmann. And today we are gonna talk about sales. And so I know this may be an area where you don't feel a hundred percent comfortable, but that's okay. That's what this podcast actually I'm doing. A series is all about. I've been coaching women, business owners for almost like a decade, maybe even longer than a decade. I can't even believe it. And when I first started my business coaching agency, I really started in sales coaching. Why? Because that was the one area that I needed to learn as well. Right. So when I was in the corporate world, you only got promoted or you only made sales commission if you could sell. So when I started my business, I thought, Oh my gosh, I've got this sales thing down. I could, I doubled my six figure salary every year, just from commission from selling.

Terra Bohlmann (01:59): So I thought I got this right. But what I found out I was good at was really around the upsell. So when I was in these corporate environments, you know, I would do a good job and then naturally always find other opportunities and then be able to upsell, right. And to do more things based on perf performance and whatnot, I wasn't actually generating leads. So that was an area where I was thrown when I went into entrepreneurship was like, okay, there's lead generation, which are marketing activities. And then there's the conversion from the marketing into selling. Right? So my competence was really rattled back when I first started this business 10 years ago. And I was like, Oh yeah, this is where I need help. So I got the training I spent like over 25 grand just on sales training. And what I found was while it was good and it helped me a lot.

Terra Bohlmann (03:03): It wasn't a hundred percent there. I was still holding back because it wasn't the style of selling that I learned. Wasn't in alignment with who I was and it made me uncomfortable. And I still was like, you know, I was able to build a six-figure coaching practice and whatnot the first year, but it wasn't, it still wasn't clicking for me. Like it still felt somewhat icky in some senses. Like you may have heard that like sales feels icky. And I was very much that person 10 years ago. So I wanted to do this podcast episode really around the three things that are holding you back in sales only because I experienced this myself. So everything that I teach my clients is because I've been there too. Like, you know, I'm not just a business coach that, you know, isn't learning the stuff and reteaching him.

Terra Bohlmann (03:54): Like I was straight up in the trenches like, Whoa, this was me too. So I a hundred percent resonate if you're struggling with sales and you are drawn to this podcast episode, I want you to know I got you. And I've been there. I've so been there. Right. And a lot of the times when my clients have been there too, it's because there's three common things that are holding them back. And if we can push you through these and get clarity that you need and the comfort and the mindset on track, then you'll be unstoppable. Right? So the first thing I want to talk about is the thing that most women business owners, especially when they're starting out or just a few years old, this is what they struggle with the most when it comes to sales and it's not being clear on your signature offer.

Terra Bohlmann (04:47): So what's a signature offer. Your signature offers your thing. And I say thing. So it's a product, it's your offer? It's your service at your combination? It's your thing that you are known for that you can sell over and over and over again, your signature offer. And it's really good to have the signature offer. The one thing you may have heard the saying, keep the main thing, the main thing, right? And when you have the one thing that you're known for, it's easier for you to remember. It's easier for your potential customers to know that's what you're known for. And it's also easier for people to refer you. If you have a signature offer, 85% of new leads generated for all business owners come from referrals, 85%. So we want your signature offer to be so crystal clear to a point where you know exactly who you want to serve, and you are just, you've done all the hard work for them to give them that solution on a silver platter.

Terra Bohlmann (05:55): I often times talk about the Tiffany box, right? And that's what I want you to think of your signature offer. Like if you've ever been to Tiffany and you buy, say a necklace, you know, they wrap it up in that perfect Tiffany blue Aqua box, right. And with the perfect white satin ribbon, and that is a signature, you know, way to, they present everything. Everyone wants the Tiffany blue box, right? Your offer is what's inside the box, but it's packaged so nicely that people are like, yeah, I want that. So I need you to be really clear on your signature offer. And I say offer, and I'm not saying you only have to sell one thing, but I would rather, you sell one thing than 5 million things. And I'm raising my hand over at the party. Yeah. Studio, because I was the girl who sold a million things like before I start started the coaching business, I had a practice business, which is where we did websites and marketing services and stuff like that.

Terra Bohlmann (07:01): I always call it my practice business and what I did. I thought I was so witty and I still had this the summer. And I took it to a live event that I produced here in Houston once. But I bought a restaurant menu on eBay because, you know, I only needed one. I didn't need like, you know, a hundred for a restaurant. So I bought this beautiful restaurant menu that was leather-bound. And I put all my services in there and you know, all the different marketing services that we could do from, you know, website to logo, to SEO, to social, to whatever, you know, and it was like, and I thought in my mind, if I had just had this beautiful menu that I could present to somebody, then they could pick off the menu and it would be really a gorgeous presentation. So mind you, 10 years ago, online marketing wasn't near as big as it is now.

Terra Bohlmann (07:55): So it was like, okay. And that was my thought process because, and how I came up with that. Well, whenever I create business models for my clients, I always think in terms of experiences I've had in other industries. And I remember taking my son when he was really little, maybe two years old, three years old to a very upscale photographer in my hometown in central Illinois. And, you know, they did these wonderful pictures of grant. And then I went for the presentation to see the pictures. Right. And they present it. So they did this beautiful slide show. And of course you want all the pictures cause it's your adorable child. Right. And we were in this like gorgeous room and they presented them in you, which that's when it got rails. Like here's the packages. And so I, in my marketing services packages I had the left side was the package.

Terra Bohlmann (08:47): And then the right side was the Allah cart, very similar to what I experienced in the photography experience. You know? And, and I found myself when I, you know, watched the slide show, saw the great pictures of grant, you know, of course I bought some package. It was the most money I've ever really spent ever on pictures, let alone, you know, just, it was a big purchase for me back then and grants now 18. So gosh, that was what, 15 years ago. So thought, you know, what spent way more than I thought I would ever spend them on photos and even bought some cart. So I thought, Oh, okay, cool. If I can translate that into marketing services, I would sit down with my potential client. And because I was doing a lot of meetings at the Starbucks, like I would just stay at a Starbucks for like four hours and meet like four people in a row back to back to back and buy four cups of coffee.

Terra Bohlmann (09:41): It was a whole thing I was doing back then and I would present the menu and I would think they would have that same experience as I did, as you know, when I was buying the photography and they would go, Oh, I would like package a and then add on, you know, one, two and three, but it doesn't work like that. In all cases, the photography for me, it became an it's an emotional buying decision that I made. And I was trying to translate that over to marketing services. And, and I also thought, Oh, if I put it in a beautiful menu, I'm going to be able to step into that value and be able to feel comfortable asking for these prices as well. Of course, I was way under priced and you know, all that kind of stuff. I've, I've learned all. So anyway, so that it wasn't clear on a signature offer back then.

Terra Bohlmann (10:30): And that's probably why my quote unquote marketing services business was like, want, want wall, you know? And instead I knew like that's not really what I wanted to do anyway. I wanted to help women. And I went through a whole process to get clarity around that I wanted to be a business coach. And so, you know, I didn't have the clarity. I definitely didn't have the confidence. And when I finally realized, okay, I want to be a business coach and I didn't even know what that was. So business coaches, weren't a big thing 10 years ago, like they are now, right. It's you know, I was, it was a fairly newer industry. I definitely didn't feel like I went to college, you know, to become a business coach. I was a corporate consultant. I worked for a top consulting firm and a boutique firm and all, and did a lot of corporate consulting and was like, I wanted to translate that skill set.

Terra Bohlmann (11:25): But for women business owners, you know, small business owners and someone's like, Oh, well you want to be a business coach. I don't know. Maybe I don't know what that is, you know, so of course I, I think the best thing to do, no matter what you want to do is to go hire somebody that's better than you. So I went and got my own business coach and she helped me get started and, you know, and all that kind of stuff. But what I realized I didn't have a signature offer. So my offer really became selling the one thing. So my signature offer while it wasn't great. When I started business coaching, it was in fact I sold one thing I sold one-on-one coaching month to month at a very low flat price. Right. And I knew I needed 30 clients a month in order to hit my six figures.

Terra Bohlmann (12:18): So I did that pretty quickly, but I also didn't think through the scaling aspect of things or whatever. So I always take, like, if I have a big goal, it's like, I'm going to chunk it up into smaller goals. And, you know, so I was kind of in this, I sold the one thing, so it didn't even have a name. It was just monthly business coaching. And I would pay pal everybody on the first of the month and whenever they'd pay, they'd get their link to schedule their two sessions with me. And, and off we went. So, you know, that's what I started at with a signature offer. And then of course, you know, I was like, okay, you know, you want to scale after you're working with 30 private clients a month one-on-one for a year or two, it was like, Oh my gosh, I need to have a group.

Terra Bohlmann (13:02): I needed to like, figure out my next step because I found myself on the phone all the time. And that wasn't exactly why I left the corporate world and I wanted more freedom. And I just found myself having to like work really, really hard. And I wanted to be able to serve more women as well. So then I started a group which became my signature offer. Right. And then then I started the business maps. Cause I, you know, I had that, you know, there's whole other podcast episodes on the, the origin of creating the business map. Mine was the very first map because I was like, eh, maybe this coaching stuff isn't for me, maybe I should go back to the corporate world. This was hard. So this was probably year three, four. And you know, I went on a vacation, my husband came back and like said, you know what, I'm going to treat myself like my own client.

Terra Bohlmann (13:54): And I created a plan and the plan, it was a detailed probably at that time 40 page strategy guide that I presented to my husband. And I was like, what do you think of this? This is where I want to go. This is how I can take it. Cause I didn't, I was struggling with, how do you scale a coaching company back then? And he's like, this is good. And so that really, that was the very first business map I needed it. So then I showed it to a friend and she's like, Oh my gosh, my clients need this. Can I buy like 10 of them from you? And I was like, wow. Okay. And I just kept doing it over and over. And now my company we've done over 120 business maps, like we've personally done them. You know, I have clients in my, my signature offer, which is called the fast track accelerator.

Terra Bohlmann (14:38): It's a group done with you program that people create their own maps too. So it's always an evolution, but what I want you to do, and the thing that may be holding you back around creating a signature offer, that's your thing is to think, what can I do really well and do it over and over again, right? You don't need to reinvent the wheel every time you go to sell something, you don't need to create customized proposals all the time. Right? You can actually think what is the problem my potential customer has and how can I solve that for them? And then you put together that journey, which then can become your signature offer. And that's, to me, the number one thing you need that is holding you back from sales is not being clear on what that's thing. The one thing is, right. That you want to do over and over and put on rinse and repeat almost like, think of it in terms of, and even if you sell services, I do too.

Terra Bohlmann (15:40): It's like, you want to think in terms of, if I were a factory, how could I create this? And I even want to say widget, I know like we have emotions around what we do. I sure do super passionate about helping women. But when I disconnected the feelings around the thing and thought of it logically of like, Oh, this is my widget, this is my thing that I sell. And I want to be known for, this is my signature offer. And how can you create a sales system around selling that thing? So rather than creating custom proposals for everything and, you know, letting your potential customers decide what you're going to sell, you're leading it with, this is the solution I have for you interested. Yes or no, that's it all you want is a yes or no. And that becomes your, you know, that's your signature offer.

Terra Bohlmann (16:34): And then you want to have a goal associated to that signature offer. It says, okay, I'm going to prove this out. And for me, I remember it was like getting to 100 business maps. Once I got to a hundred business maps that I personally did, then I knew, okay, I can bring in some help for these. I can do this and that I can, and I'll never forget getting to the hundredth one. It was like, Ooh, it was a milestone for me. I was like, I have given a hundred women business owners, their how to guide to run their unique entire business. I loved it. And you know, so then whether it's a revenue goal or in my case, it was, I wanted to do a hundred maps, you know, whatever your goal is. But until you accomplish that goal, based on your signature offer, don't get shiny object syndrome and think of other things, right.

Terra Bohlmann (17:21): Don't be the person who, you know, I was like, okay, I do the websites. We can do the logo. We can actually do your social. We, you know, like keep the main thing, the main thing, going back to that signature offer, name it brand it own it, be the creator of it. I'm like so cool that I'm the creator of the fast track accelerator, you know? So be the creator of your signature offer. That's your thing. And systematize the sales process. As much as you can, you don't need to create the custom proposals more than likely you can have one sales aid sheet or a PDF or a sales page or something that gives all the details on it. Right. And it makes the process so much smoother and you become highly confident around what you're selling. Okay. So that's the first thing that would hold you back in sales is not having a signature offer. The second thing which goes hand in hand with that is not being comfortable with your price.

Terra Bohlmann (18:25): And so you've

Terra Bohlmann (18:26): Got your signature offer. So many women like to undercut their value. It's not that they like to, they just feel like they want to help everyone. And we just tend to devalue our worth. And I say this because I big time did, like, I don't even want to mention how much I used to sell one-on-one coaching for back in the day. And you know, and then by the time you have to pay taxes, obviously, and if you have some teams support and whatnot, like there's, there's not a ton of profit when you don't have, you know, I really solid price that you're asking for your signature offer. And one thing I found is because my price was too low. Like no one believes this, but it is so true. And I've had clients prove it time and time again, when your price is set too low, it actually repels your perfect customer from actually working with hiring you. So it repels your perfect customer from hiring you because they think, Oh, she must not be that good. Right. And I didn't get this because my whole mindset back then was,

Terra Bohlmann (19:35): I want to help everybody. I want to save all

Terra Bohlmann (19:37): The women. Right. So I never wanted price to be a barrier. But when I found out I raised my, when I Rose my raise my prices, by like 50%, I got a higher quality woman that actually did the work because I don't want to take anyone's money if they're not going to show up for themselves. Right. It's not about feeling guilty because you're not doing what I'm having you do as your coach. It's really about showing up for yourself. And so when you charge too much, there's not much skin in the game. And they're just like, right. So, you know, I was like, okay, I'm going to raise my prices because all my branding, I'm all my, whatever was very in alignment. Everyone assumed I was expensive. So then I was like, Oh, well I'm X. It was a disconnect for a lot of which I found out after I did a bunch of market research and ask a ton of people.

Terra Bohlmann (20:26): So you want to be really comfortable with your price to where, you know, it's an amazing value, but yet you're not undercutting yourself. So how do you get comfortable with your price? Well, I mean, this is why when I bring women into the fast track accelerator, it's something that's something we do back and forth. And you know, I've seen pricing for so many business models that I can easily go. Yeah. I think that is a, that's a hundred percent a great price to start with because you can always raise your price. It's much harder to lower your price. So in, you know, if you've got a price in mind for your signature offer, you can test it out. You can do a beta price with it. And then what I do, and I say this all the time, so I can with authenticity, say the fast track accelerator is this price, but it's not going to be at this price next month, or it's not going to be at this price. The next time I launch it because I always raise my price. I don't usually don't double it or whatever, every time, but I ratchet it up because I have success stories. I have whatever. Like I am more of a, it's more about, it's like a real estate model. And my husband and I have rentals real estate. We have houses that we rent out and whatnot. And rather than doing like a, you know, if the rent say $2,000, right. And rather than making it like 2,500, if when their lease expires or whatever, we just

Terra Bohlmann (21:57): Ratchet it up a little bit, a little bit, a little bit. And it's actually

Terra Bohlmann (22:01): To me, better to do for your customers as well. So you can always raise your price, but start with that price. And how do you do that? You're like, Ooh, Terra , this makes me nervous. I get it. So you'll want to do that. Where it makes that price that you say makes you nervous and excited at the same time. And I use this gut test a lot. So you want to say like, that makes me a little nervous, you know, maybe your thing you want to sell for $2,000. Right. And you're like, who makes me nervous? Because so-and-so is so amazing. And she sells hers at 2000. Well, she's not you. So that's a whole other podcast episode, but like, it should make you uncomfortable, but like also excited to be like, yeah, I know I'm worth that. Okay. So the second thing that will hold you back in sales is not being comfortable with your price. So every time you sell and they say, well, how much? Like they can feel your energy if you're not comfortable with your price. So my good friend, Amanda, Amanda Walker, she's amazing. And you know, even with pricing, we, you know, we were at a mastermind in Sedona, Sedona, and she was like, you know, what you do is you just give them the price and then you take a drink of water and shut up. And I was like,

Terra Bohlmann (23:20): I liked that. Cause usually like, I'll give them

Terra Bohlmann (23:23): Price. And I know what I, all my pricing, I'm a hundred percent in alignment with, and I know it's a good deal, but like, you know, there's something about giving the price and then just being quiet. She goes, cause then as soon as they start talking, they're going to tell you the objections, right? And so you just have to be quiet and listen to that and sit in that uncomfortableness. I was like, Ooh, this is good. Like the coaching starts immediately on the consultation, just like you got it. So we want to be comfortable with the price. So you tell them the price and you be quiet and don't start talking about like Obama discount or all the things don't put your, any money drama that you have around your yourself or whatever. Don't project that onto your car, on your potential customer. Instead say your price, do what Amanda says, drink the water and let them speak first.

Terra Bohlmann (24:16): So we gotta be clear on what you're selling. Number one, your signature offer. Number two, the price that you're going to sell your signature offer app. And then the third thing that will hold you back in sales is the fear of just selling in general, the idea, the, what comes up when you hear the word I have to sell, and you may be like me, you may not like be like me. That's totally fine. But what I found I was doing because I was uncomfortable with quote unquote selling, I was marketing like crazy. So I was hiding behind marketing activities, thinking that was my problem. Well, I needed to do more marketing. Marketing is comfortable for me. It was fun, but I wasn't selling marketing is different than selling. This is usually why these are two different departments and companies as well. There's the sales department and the marketing department.

Terra Bohlmann (25:08): They work closely together because it takes marketing to generate leads, but then it takes a sales process to convert those leads into paying customers. Right? So if there's a fear that you have around selling, that becomes your work that you have to do, and you can ask yourself questions. Why like you can literally just grab a journal and start asking yourself questions around, you know what, when I think of sales, what comes up for me? Do you think of the icky car salesman? Do you think about that time that you bought something and completely like what was taken quote unquote taken, right? Like they promised you all the things they didn't deliver. Did you have bad experiences around people selling to you? Well, here's the cool part is just because you had those bad experiences, doesn't mean that's how you have to sell, replace that word selling with serving.

Terra Bohlmann (26:09): Okay. That's that was like a mind trick I did for years was I don't need to do sell today. I need to serve. So if I can serve women business owners, then that felt really good versus, Oh, I gotta go sell five more, you know, coaching programs or five more, you know, business maps like that doesn't sound fun. It doesn't feel even in alignment with who I am. But if I said, Oh, I got it. I get to go serve five new coaching clients. That's cool. Cause that's impactful. I get to help five women business owners grow their business. Ooh, that's cool. So a trick I used for years was selling, replacing that word with serving. That's a big trick. I've worked with my, even a lot of my private clients on until that just starts clicking where you see selling as serving. Very cool.

Terra Bohlmann (27:02): And a lot of the selling may come in asking for the money. It could be, you know, one thing I've I found for myself was, you know, when I raise my prices, once it was like, I felt I was nervous to do it, but I also felt, man, I have invested $24,000. It was my first coach. Right. And I'm asking, Oh, back. Yeah. It was like a fourth of that. So it helps you to be able to sell when you've invested in yourself too. Right? I mean, it's just one of these things. And so if you do struggle with selling, that becomes your work because trust me, nobody's going to care about the success of your business and your sales and the profit that you can make more than yourself. That's just the way it is. So we have to be able to sell and know that selling isn't icky.

Terra Bohlmann (28:01): It's not because if we can't sell, we can't serve our customers. And if we can't serve our customers, like trust me, they want to give you money for what you're doing. Right. You've got your signature offer. They have a problem. They want to be able to pay somebody to help them solve that problem. There's your signature offer. That's, that's the thing. And then you have the right price that you're comfortable with. That may even be a stretch for them in some cases, but that's okay. They're going to actually show up and do the work for you. And then you've walked them through a beautiful sales process that feels in alignment. I meant like if you don't like to be too pressured when you sell don't pressure, people don't be that person. If you like, if you find that you make your S your sales decisions based on something that could be taking away, or, you know, like you can sell based on how you like to be sold to, because I'd venture to say that most of your customers are going to be similar to you in that sense.

Terra Bohlmann (29:05): And then you can show up with huge integrity, which is awesome. So that's what I have. The three things that will hold you back in sales. One, not being clear on a signature offer to not being comfortable with your price or asking for money, right? That's a huge one and three having that fear of selling because you've had some bad experiences. Remember we just want to replace that word. I got to go sell today. I got to go serve today and go get those customers that you're meant to work with. So if though any of those three things are holding you back, I want to let you know that the fast track accelerator is open for enrollment. And that's my group mentorship program. It's a one-year program. It's meant to get you from zero to a hundred thousand dollars. And if you're at the over a hundred thousand already, I have the fast track premiere, which is a better fit for you.

Terra Bohlmann (30:00): But the fast track accelerator is a curated process for over a year that you can put into place in your business. And you'll put the strategies in place in your business to be able to produce your own business map. And I will give you the template for it. And I make it as simple as possible. And you get to meet other like-minded women in the group community you'll have access to me where we can refine and get you comfortable with your price and create your signature offer. And all of those things that need to be done. I also teach you how to sell. Like it's, it's really a comprehensive program. And I know with a hundred percent authenticity, that it is perfect for the woman that struggles with, or really struggles with selling and is just, doesn't have that a hundred percent crystal clarity on what they're selling.

Terra Bohlmann (30:55): And because I know after the women go through this program, the confidence skyrockets, we also work on your mindset. You get a five-year plan, like it's really a great program if you're willing to show up and do some work. So if you're interested in that, just go to Terra Bohlmann.com T E R R a B O H L B O H L M a N N bull man, with two ns.com/accelerator. And if you can go, if you go to that page and it's open, that means I'm enrolling into it. There's a pay-in-full discount, or you can do the monthly payment plan if that works better for you. And that's it. And we can actually be partnering together over the next year to get your business to the next level of success that you want. And I promise you'll be a better salesperson too. So so I'd love to work with you and the accelerator, Terra Bohlmann.com/accelerator. And until next time we're going to do another sales podcast, because I think it's really important as we are pushing through the end of this year, that we show up in a big way, get you comfortable around selling so that you can have as many customers as you want. And the next year, till next time, take care.

Outro (32:22): And there you have it. Another jam packed episode of the fast track woman podcast, don't forget to visit Terra Bohlmann.com, where you can get more business tips and strategies learn how we can work together to accelerate your business success or access this podcast episode show with a full transcript and links to resources mentioned today. And if you enjoyed this podcast, I invite you to leave a review so that we can help serve more women business owners to like you until next time here's to owning your time and valuing

Outro (32:55): Your word.