Want to get consistent with content? take this 1-minute quiz to discover how

How to Create a Reliable Follow-Up System for Your Business

Hailey Dale

HEY THERE!

I’m Hailey – content strategist and founder here at Your Content Empire where we help you create more profitable, purposeful and productive content — and hopefully enjoy yourself more while doing it too. Learn more about me here >>

Let’s Connect

Categories

Content Systems
Content Strategy
Sales Funnels
All
How to Create a Reliable Follow-Up System for Your Business

Does the thought of selling make you feel queasy? Regardless of how you feel about them, there’s always something that can be improved with them and they’re a very necessary part of doing business. Luckily, Marva Goss – sales strategist extraordinaire – is here with some tactical 1-2-3’s of how to set up a reliable sales system for your business!

Marva Goss is a sales strategist and coach to coaches and creatives that need help explaining the real impact of their service, so they can easily book more of the right clients. Marva is a veteran turned business owner that loves helping clients own their expertise and get paid for it. For more information, visit www.marvagoss.com

Key Takeaways from this Episode

What has your business journey looked like from when you first hung out that digital “come in, we’re open sign” to where you are today?

  • Lots and lots of pivoting, lots of highs and so many lows. Just a little bit of background, I actually did start my first business as a virtual assistant years ago, and from there I ended up pivoting into life coaching, and then I went into kind of the brand strategy thing and some content strategy.
  • And then I ended up doing sales, which is what I do now, I'm a sales coach. But all those experience definitely build on the previous one, and I'm really, really, really glad that I got all of that experience before I found my thing that I really love to do. In a way, I feel like when I talk about it, sometimes people are like, “Oh my gosh. That's a lot. You've had a lot of business. You've done a lot of things.” And I have. When I started my first business, I was still in the military, and I was also a government employee while side hustling it as a virtual assistant at night
  • But you know, all those things helped me to see what I don't want; like what I don't want to do, what doesn't work for my life, and I think sometimes as business owners, we just feel this pressure to get it right the first time. Because of the fear of what somebody's going to say if we change or whatever, but I've changed a lot of times as I've grown up and I may change again in the future, but for now, I'm super happy with where I am. I have amazing clients, and all of that experience has really, really helped me to build a successful business.

In terms of legacy – what is the big mission you’re here to accomplish with your business?

  • Ultimately, what I want to do is help other small business owners create the life of their dreams on their terms, and making money is a major way to do that. And I recognize that for most of us, just because of money mindset blocks and limiting beliefs and, you know, all those things we heard growing up, we feel sometimes like making money is a bad thing. Asking for the sale is a bad thing. But, getting the money is what helps you to have the freedom that you want. It's what helps you to live the life you want and do the work you love. To really do the things you want to do with your family, or travel, or whatever, open that restaurant, whatever it is.
  • Making money helps you to do that, and I really want people to see that making money and asking for money in exchange for the things that you know in your expertise, is not a horrible thing. It's actually a really honorable thing, and that also making money is what will help you with the life of your dreams without feeling like a bad person for it. Or feeling like you're greedy for doing it. You need money to survive, and you need it to create the freedom that you really, really, really want for your business. So, ultimately I want to help people get more of what they want in their life, and making money is how I help them do that.

What's the #1 burning question you get from your community and what do you tell them?

  • People are reaching out all the time, they're getting the engagement, they're reaching out, people are saying they're interested, or they love what they're doing, and they want to take the next step and then they disappear. And one of the things I tell people is, consistency is key. Not just with building your business and posting online, and emailing your lists, and being consistent with your graphics or whatever. But consistency is key in following up with people, that you want to work with. It's key in following up with the people who DM you, who hop on a call with you and then they ghost, because we're all busy. It takes no time for me to go from talking to you about something business-related, to making dinner, to running to the grocery store, to picking up my daughter from school, to then talking to. By the time that's all over, I'm not thinking about whatever I reached out to you about, I've totally forgotten.
  • Yeah. Or even just the social media scroll, I'll talk to you and then I'll be in someone's social media feed. I'll be in their Instagram stories laughing at their dog. And things just go so fast in our society. It's usually not personal, it's not [crosstalk 00:08:26]necessarily that they don't like you, or like what you had to offer, they literally may have got sidetracked or forgotten. And rather than jumping to the conclusion of, “My service isn't working, my business isn't working, oh my gosh, I'm going to fail, I'm going to have to go back and work”; all the millions of things that come to mind, these worst case scenarios. Let's leave some room for, maybe they just forgot. And maybe if I just follow up I can start that relationship with them again. Maybe I'll just send the email back

So shifting gears to marketing – How do you stay motivated and inspired when it comes to content creation (especially after all this time)?

  • You know, a lot of my inspiration comes from me seeing other people. Seeing what they are doing in terms of, maybe I'll go to somebody's story and they are posting some quote about “not giving up and this is a marathon not a sprint”, you know, all the things that sound good but they don't feel good. So I may see that and I'm like, “Oh, snap.” It may spark something from me. A lot of times I do get inspiration looking at other people who inspire me. And they may say something that I resonate with and it just sparks all these ideas, and “oh I should talk about that, or I should talk about something related to that”. But I also know that if people don't ever get to see me, they're never going to buy from me.
  • And so part of my inspiration for content creation and marketing is, I need to stay relevant. I need to stay out in the forefront in some way so that people know that I am here, that I have something that can really benefit their life and their business, and so that they could eventually become a client, or just join my tribe, or whatever that may be. But I've seen people do the opposite, so it's like they've been really consistent with content and really been marketing their business and going really hard. But maybe they hit a burn-out or they just decided “this isn't working” and they just stopped. And their business started dwindling as well, because it was like “Oh snap.” You kind of stop doing all the things that help you get the success.
  • I recognize, I can't do that. I can't. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure I could, but I don't want to do that. I want people to know who I am. I want to be the top of mind when people think about sales or sales help and things like that, so I recognize to do that. I have got to stay on top of my game. And I think there is also that part of I've done so much and sacrificed so much to get here, that I am not going to let myself go backwards. I've just come too far. So by any means necessary, I have to put my big girl panties on and do a lot of the things I don't feel like doing to make sure my business is still growing and not going backwards.

Where are storing all of this inspiration you come across so you do remember to use it for later?

  • Usually I'll store it somewhere for later. More often than not I will make notes of it or use the voice recorder on my phone. Like if I am driving I will just kind of record this idea I have or something like whether it's email or a live video. If I have the time, I will stop and do it right away because sometimes the energy isn't there, I don't know if that makes sense. When it hits me I'm like “Oh Gosh, I'm super excited I have got to do this today”. It's gonna come across so much better if I can do it right now then if I do it next week and I'm like not even that motivated by it anymore. So I try to do it right away if I can. And that's the beauty of social media and these phones, it's like, I can be in my car and I can just hit record and share whatever epiphany I just had with people. And then of course on the flip side I just make a note of it and I'm like, “Hey I'll have to come back to it later, maybe tomorrow.” So it's a little bit of both.

How does content work in your business. What do you handle and do you have a team that helps? Fill us in!

  •  Yeah so I handle all of the creation coming out with what I am going to talk about. I am kind of like … I really don't want to say that I'm the person that can't let stuff go, but in terms of content, I am super duper involved. [crosstalk 00:13:59] And because I love, love, love when I talk about something … I just did a video yesterday and people were like “Oh my gosh, this makes so much sense for me, or I've been wondering about this” and I just love that type of feedback, and I know that a lot of people … Some people like me. And so when it's me, if I put myself into it, it connects a lot better [crosstalk 00:14:25] than if I just have somebody else going off and creating it. Not saying that they can't get my voice and stuff, but there's just something about YOU that's integral, I think, to your content creation. So, I do all of the mapping out … “Like, hey, I'm going to talk about this this day, and that's going to lead up to this.” So I create all of the content and the only thing I really have my team do is I'll give it to them and maybe they'll create a graphic for it. They will pop it in, or edit it or make sure that I didn't flub anything.
  • For some reason I feel like I am most creative at 1 o'clock in the morning. So I'll write a lot of stuff at like 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning and so I'll give it off to them to make sure there aren't typos and things like that. But for the most part, I handle all of my own content creation, and again, a lot of it is the inspiration. Something happened, whether it was a conversation with another business owner or with a client, something has happened. I am big on telling stories because people remember stories and they can see themselves in the story. I told a story on social media about how my first launch failed epically. I mean, oh my gosh, I was like literally on the floor like crying. Like “How in the world did I get here?” It was so horrible. And people love it. That is my most liked, shared, saved post ever. Because so many people saw themselves in it.

Can you walk us through a typical content creation day for you? What’s your process for creating new content look like?

  • Yeah so, it usually does happen between one and two in the morning. And I usually, like if I know, “hey, I need to start creating for next week” or thinking bout what's gonna be next, I kind of, I really like to lead people somewhere.Right, so whether that's my freebie or that's a call with me, or whatever. And then I work backwards. What steps do I need to take, or do they need to take, to move closer to this end goal that I want them to take. And then I map out my story that way. I know what my end goal is and I mapped out the steps whether that's three or four posts, or call to actions, or videos, or stories, or whatever that's going to be, and then I start filling in the gaps.
  • So maybe I'll tell the story … For instance, if I was selling something around launching, then I may start with my story about my launch. And then I may go into a result that I helped a client get. But I really don't have … That's like the most of my structure. Is like, “Hey, what am I going to write?” And I kinda get it out of my head, and then start making sure that it is all cleaned up and edited. But I don't have like … anything outside of the process doesn't work. Because I've tried so many things that I heard other people do and I was just like, “This is just making it harder.”
  • But for me, maybe it's just my personality type. I am like a big, “let me just get it onto paper, write it out, schedule it and I'm done.” That done is better than perfect and I used to be so wrapped up, and don't get me wrong, different things work for different people that works for whoever's listening. I'm so happy you found something, but maybe someone's lucky and they're just like, “I'm doing all the things and it's getting me nowhere.” And it may just be the way your brain works, so for me I just have my notes, I start typing things out, make sure it is grammatically sound and I go onto the next thing. Otherwise I get stuck in the cycle of perfection. Is this good enough? Does it tell enough? Is it going to convert? “Girl, just do it. Let’s just do it. We'll tweak along the way.” I hope that answers your question.

How would you define a content empire as it relates to your own business and what you’ve built?

  • I define a content empire as my library of credibility, ultimately, because it's something I always share with my clients. People need to know just where you stand in terms of credibility and your offer, your service. It's really, really important that you get some content pieces that let people know that, A: I am an expert, and B: I have something that can really help you solve that problems that you have.

Do you have a resource that you could share with us as a starting point for a service-preneur can use to start seeing more inquiries and consistent revenue right away?

  • The Follow-Up Framework – The reason why it's my favorite is because over 50% of sales are made by follow-up. And a lot of people don't know that and a lot are terrified thinking, “Oh my gosh, all of these people, they are going to run away. They are going to think I am crazy. They're going to think I am desperate for money.” And actually none of that is true. You are being a good sales person. And following up can literally, if you learn nothing else from me, following-up can change everything in your business. Everything from this day forward.
  • Some of the things that you are going to learn is how to create a schedule and ultimately how to follow-up with people. What things need to go in your follow-up, how to create a schedule so that those leads don't slip through the cracks. Because that was a major complaint that I got. People would be like, “So how do I track all of these people, and all of these thing?” Well, we created something for you and it can literally just turn your business around by implementing this great piece. I am really excited for people to snatch it up.

Lightning Round

Latest content or marketing tool discovery? BuzzSumo. That changed my life. I didn't know anything about that.

Most profound business program you've taken? Business by Design (By James Wedmore)

What is one marketing trend that you're passing on for now? Creating a YouTube channel

2019 planner of choice? Day Designer.

Where would you invest $5,000 in your business today? Facebook Ads.

Links for this Show

You Might Also Be Interested In These Posts

How to Measure ROI of Content: 60 Ideas for Things to Measure

How to Measure ROI of Content: 60 Ideas for Things to Measure

As the smart and savvy business owner you are, you know that you’re supposed to focus your energies on the things that have the biggest payoff for your business.  And that’s where things can get a little fuzzy with content – it isn’t always easy to pinpoint and track...

My 40K Per Month Content Systems

My 40K Per Month Content Systems

In this post, I'm taking you behind-the-scenes of my 40K per month content systems. I never thought I’d see the day when I’d proudly declare that my content strategy and systems are a little boring but that’s just the way I like it. It’s taken a lot of growth to get...

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This