286: You Don't Have a Visibility Problem. You Have a Conversation Problem

Podcast
Written By Destini Copp
286: You Don't Have a Visibility Problem. You Have a Conversation Problem

You are posting, you are emailing, you have a few thousand people on your list and maybe a free community too, and still almost nobody is buying. So you decide the problem must be reach and you go make more content.

Tracy Beavers says that is almost always the wrong read. Tracy spent 25 years in corporate sales before she built her own business, and she now helps creators turn the visibility they already have into actual buyers. In this conversation she walks through how to move people along what she calls the conveyor belt of your business, starting with the emails you are already sending.

In this episode

  • Why a list of 7,000 people can still produce almost no sales
  • The conveyor belt, and why Tracy stopped saying funnel
  • The band candy email that got 15 to 20 replies
  • One question you can ask that almost always gets an answer
  • How to start networking when you are an introvert
  • What to say in a DM so it does not sound salesy

Resources mentioned.

If you know you need to be emailing your list every week and you want the system for actually doing it, come join us inside Newsletter Profit Club.

Join Newsletter Profit Club →

Episode transcript.

00:00All right, I have a special guest here with me today. I have Tracy Beavers. Tracy, thank you so much for joining me, I am excited for our conversation. Before we get into all my questions, can you tell the audience a little bit more about you and how you help people?

Thanks so much for having me. I am excited to be here, and I am so glad we connected. The summit you had recently was amazing. So I am Tracy Beavers, I am a business and sales coach in Little Rock, Arkansas, and my background came from corporate. Probably a lot like your listeners, I got disenchanted.

There we go. There is the word. That is a nice word, disenchanted.

It is the nicest thing I can think of right now. The other words that are coming to mind are not for public hearing. Anyway, disenchanted with corporate, and I really never thought I would leave corporate. I never set out to be an entrepreneur.

01:00If you had told me I was going to, I would have told you that you were out of your mind. But I had a long sales career, over 25 years, really successful, award winning, all the things. I was working for a company that wanted to monkey around with the commission structure every time the sales department started to make really good money, and I was like, okay.

So I had no control over my time, because it was a stressful 12 hour a day job, and then I am thinking, okay, I thought I could make as much money as I want. Apparently not, they are going to mess with that too. So through some really great friends, they introduced me into the world of online coaching and helped me realize something.

You know when you are good at something and you think everybody else is good at it too? I did not realize that sales was hard for other people, because it is easy for me, and they were like, you need to teach people how to do sales. And I am like, what? Sales is easy. They thought I was out of my mind when I said that.

So here I am all these years later. I built my business alongside my corporate job for the first year and a half until I could 02:00fully exit, and then here I am, the rest is history.

What I do now has evolved, much like your listeners are probably thinking, oh, mine is going through an evolution too. I started out as general as you could imagine, so vanilla, being a business and sales coach. Who do you serve? Everybody. You know what I mean? I was just trying to get started.

And then I realized that people were building a lot of products and offers and they had no one to sell them to. Time and again, that was happening. People would come hire me and say, Tracy, I have got these awesome courses, everybody tells me they are great, they have sold a few, but. And I would say, how many people are on your email list? And they would go, I do not have a list.

And I would say, okay, do you have a free community, a free Facebook group, a Skool community, something like that? I do not have that. And I am like, okay, let us build you an audience, because you have got to have somebody that is going to buy what you are selling.

So it has evolved into helping people take the visibility that they have in the online space and making sure it actually converts into buyers. Because having the visibility is one thing, but if it is not building your list, if it is not bringing in 03:00leads that you can actually talk to, then there is no point in having the visibility.

So that is what I do now.

Okay, this is going to be a great conversation, because I would put myself in the category of people who hate sales. So I am going to join everybody else who is listening and raise my hand for that. I definitely want to dig into all of this with you.

I would say that a lot of our listeners understand the importance of the email list. I teach the Newsletter Profit Club, everybody knows it is important to build your email list. But the challenge that a lot of us have is we have people on our email list, or maybe we even have some social media followers, or maybe we have dipped our toes and started a Skool community.

And we still feel invisible, right? We are not having those conversations, 04:00and one could argue that is what is going to jumpstart our sales. So what would you say to somebody like that?

Yeah, so this happens. I had a client recently that is in my alumni mastermind, and she was like, Tracy, nobody is buying. So I always want to ask, okay, do you have a visibility problem? She does not, because people are joining her list and her free Facebook group. She has probably 7,000 people on her email list. She has a couple thousand people in her free Facebook group.

The problem was she was not having enough conversations with these people to move them along what I like to call the conveyor belt of your business. A lot of people will say funnel or pipeline. I like conveyor belt because I can see it and it moves, like the people mover at the airport. When you step on it, you know it is going to move you somewhere, and that is the way I want them thinking about their business.

Okay, somebody stepped onto my conveyor belt by joining my list. Now it is my job to make sure 05:00they keep moving along the belt. But if I am not doing my job, they are not going to move. They are going to get stuck.

And for someone that is growing their list and not making the income they want, my first question is, how often are you talking to your list? Because come to find out they will say, oh, I emailed them 30 days ago. Okay. With all the love in the world, that is not often enough.

They are going to forget about you, because we are not a big name. I am not Nike, I am not Apple, I am not McDonald's. I am Tracy Beavers in Little Rock, Arkansas. I cannot assume that someone is going to love me that much to remember me 30 days later, let alone two days later.

So the first place I would start is, how many people do you have on your list? And I do not care if it is five people or 5,000 people, you need to be emailing them regularly and having conversations.

Because what made me successful in sales in corporate was not the brochure I gave somebody, it was not the ad my company ran. 06:00It was me doing the marketing, using my mouth, telling people about my business, my offers, how I could help them, how I am the best option for what they need, and building a relationship. That is what needs to happen in the online space.

It is just a little more difficult, it feels like, because nobody is in person. So it is like, how do I have these conversations with people, Tracy? We are going to talk to them through the email, and we are going to use really cool, fun, creative ways to get them to reply back so we can build the relationship and nurture them further and uncover their needs.

And the same goes for my client that had thousands of people in her free Facebook group. She was not talking to any of them. I said, are you sending them a welcome DM when they join your group? No. Are you tagging them on posts that might pertain to something they want? No. And I am like, you are sitting on a honeypot, two big ones, the list and the free group.

You do not have a visibility problem, you do not have a leads problem. You have a conversation and conversion problem. And that is actually easy to fix. We just have to get her in the habit 07:00of it.

I love that. I like your analogy there about the conveyor belt, just how you were bringing them along.

So let us talk about this. We are having conversation problems, so let us talk about different ways we can fix that conversation problem. What would you tell somebody if they are coming to you and saying, I have the email list. Let us even say that we are emailing them on a regular basis, because if they are in my audience, they know they need to be emailing on at least a weekly basis.

They better be. Y'all better be emailing. Destini is going to put you on the naughty list if you do not do it, if you are in her world, right?

Exactly. So I do not think anybody out there is going to have that issue here. But what would you say to them?

So first of all, I would say, okay, what is the open rate? Are people interested in what you are sending? What is your click through rate? Open rates are weird now with all the tech changes and the Apple blah blah blah. I am like, oh, thanks for changing the rules. But 08:00anyway, let us look at your open rate.

Let us get that as high as possible, because you want people to open the emails, and that starts with, and I am sure you teach this, a really fun subject line to make them go, oh, I need to see what Tracy is saying. And then the email needs to have some meat to it that makes people want to keep opening it up all the time.

But inside that email, let us think of some ways to get them to reply back, and it could be the silliest thing you have ever said. For example, I was doing an email talking about the mindset around sales, because I had a new podcast episode coming out and I wanted to share it with everybody. And I said something about how I have been good at sales since I was little.

I used to go and sell my older brother and sister's band candy when they had to do that as a fundraiser for their high school band. I was the kid with the red wagon going around the neighborhood selling all the candy and selling out with no 09:00problem. Of course, who is going to say no to a little kid with a red wagon and candy?

But anyway, I digress. So I have been doing that since I was little, and I thought, okay, I am talking about sales in this email, and that brought back that memory. So I shared something about the band candy, and I said, reply back and tell me what is the weirdest thing you had to sell when you were in school for a fundraiser.

Now, does that have anything to do directly with my offers? Not really, it is about sales. But do you know how many replies I got back? Probably 15 or 20 out of a 4,000 person list. I think that is pretty good. And they had the wackiest stuff that they had sold, and it was such fun to be able to reply back.

One woman sold pizza. They made the pizza in the high school cafeteria and then delivered it, and she goes, how many health code violations did we have? I am like, I know, that is insane. But she and I built a relationship that way, and then I was able to say to her, 10:00what can I do to support you right now in your business?

I always ask people that. It is so easy to say, what can I do for you right now? How could I support you right now? And then be prepared for their answer. Some people will say, I am looking to get on a really great podcast, do you know a host that has one? Yes, as a matter of fact, let me introduce you to these two people that I think you might be a great guest for.

Or they might say, tell me how to create my weekly content for my social media without losing my mind. Okay, cool, and I give them a few tips. Did I sell anything in that moment? No. But did I build a relationship that they are not going to forget? Yes. Are they more likely to now open my emails? You betcha.

And are they more likely to remember me when I offer them something? Yes. And are they more likely to refer me when someone they know is looking for what I do? Yes. And that is how I was successful in corporate sales. It is the very same formula. 11:00Be a human being, talk to the other human beings, be kind.

If they say to me, Tracy, I do not know that I have any visibility, I am not bringing in any leads, and if my eight week group coaching accelerator is coming up open again soon, I am going to say, hey, you know what, if this is of interest, get your spot on the waitlist, because Business Visibility Made Easy is going to open here in another few weeks.

And if it is the right fit for you, I want you to join us, because I will solve exactly what you are talking about in that program. So all I have said is, hey, I have got this thing, if it sounds like it is exactly what you need, here is the link to get on the waitlist. Or, would you like the link to check it out?

If the doors were open, I would have said, would you like the link to check it out? I would not have just given them the link. So we are just being a warm, kind human being that is sharing what we are doing and offering to help the other person, and the sales will come. They will take care of 12:00themselves. They do every single time.

So I am going to steal what you said. How can I support you right now. And no matter what niche we are in, we can use that phrase in our emails.

Absolutely. And just think about those words. If somebody said that to you, how good would that feel? When somebody says to me, what can I do for you, I am like, because I am Southern, bless your heart for asking, thank you so much. I cannot think of anything, but I really appreciate you offering. And I leave that feeling so good, and so do they.

Yeah, I love that. So we are going to take a little bit of a different angle here. Outside of email, and certainly the conversations that we have there, what are some other ways we can continue those or even jumpstart those conversations easily?

Yes, there are some great easy ways, especially if the introverts in the audience are literally passing out with everything I am saying to do. They are probably 13:00like, oh my gosh. Because I will admit, I can talk to a brick wall. I always have been able to. I am a massive extrovert.

But for my introverted friends, a very easy thing to do is start with one virtual networking event. Just one. It does not have to be one that has thousands of people in it. Mine that we run once a month has on average 30 to 40 women. It is an incredibly safe space to come and practice your elevator pitch.

And the nice thing about being in a virtual networking session, you have been in plenty of them, Destini, is that rarely do you have to speak in the grand room where everybody is. Normally you do not have to say anything about yourself until you get into the smaller breakout room, where it is generally two to maybe five people at the most.

So if you are an introverted person, just think, okay, I am going to do what Tracy says. I am going to try one virtual networking thing, and I am going to get into one breakout room with just a few other people, and I am going to 14:00open my mouth and let my mouth do the marketing, and I am going to say who I am, who I serve, and how, and I am going to offer to help them.

Use that line. What can I do to support y'all? What do y'all have going on in the next 90 days? Is there a door I can open for you? Is there an idea that you are needing to flesh out?

And then, if you can, take it a step further. Set one coffee chat with one person from that breakout room to meet up with them for 15 or 20 minutes on Zoom, just to go a little bit deeper.

But if we start having conversations and talking to other people, the business growth is going to compound, because the more people know what you do and who you serve, the more they can either buy your thing, refer your thing, or they might invite you to collaborate like Destini and I are doing. For introverted people, that is an easy, soft way to get started.

Just one networking session. Get in one breakout room. One coffee chat. 15:00I promise, I have not heard of anybody dying doing one coffee chat. I do not think it has happened yet. And if you are introverted and you are like, Tracy, I do not know what the heck to say or do, DM me, send me an email. Let me help you. Let me support you with doing that.

But then what Destini and I are doing right now, when you are talking to all those people they may say, oh my gosh, let us do a collaboration. I have got an awesome podcast, I think you would be an amazing guest, what do you think? Or they might say, hey, do you want to do a list swap?

What is a list swap? A list swap is where I have got something super cool that I want to offer Destini's audience, and Destini has got something super cool she wants to offer my audience, and we each send a solo email to our list to introduce the other person. Then Destini has some of my people getting on her list, and she can get into conversation with them in the inbox, and the business growth takes off, and we are moving people.

That is why I love the conveyor belt so much, because I am such a visual person. And everybody knows what it is. The 16:00funnel thing and the pipeline thing always confused me. I am moving people through. So we are moving people through. We are meeting them, we are having conversation.

We are going to maybe do a coffee chat. Maybe we are going to end up in a collaboration. Maybe we end up referring or being affiliate partners. Maybe they want to hire you. That is it. Easy peasy.

Yeah, there are a lot of different directions something like that could take. So just to recap, just one virtual session. And Tracy, just so you know, I am a severe introvert, so you are the opposite.

Are you really? I had no idea.

No one would have guessed, right? I am a severe introvert. But I have done what you have been saying all these years, taking those steps, going to that first virtual event, 17:00going there, meeting people, talking to them, and it has expanded over the years. So what you are teaching people, I can attest that it works. Everybody listen very closely to what Tracy is saying there.

So let me ask you this. If somebody listening wanted to grow their business this week without creating another piece of content, because we are sick of all the content creation we are having to do, what would you tell them to do?

I like what you are asking, because chances are they have plenty of content. They are not invisible. They are showing up. They are doing the social media, all the things. The first thing I would say is, I want them to take the challenge of finding a place to network.

Or do this. If you do not want to go to a virtual networking session, what about this? You are probably in Destini's Skool community. And Destini, do you allow them to 18:00connect with each other through the DMs and stuff like that?

Yeah, absolutely. As long as they are not being salesy, right? If it is true connection, absolutely.

Perfect. So listeners, you should be in Destini's Skool community if you are not. That is a safe place to start, because you have in common with that other person you are going to reach out to the fact that you are both in her Skool community. That is an easy door open.

You just send them a DM or a message and you say, hey Susie, I am in this Skool community, I see you are too, I am excited to be here. You can tell them how long you have been in the group. You could even say, I am new to reaching out and I heard this crazy woman, Tracy Beavers from Little Rock, Arkansas, tell me I needed to start having conversations, so it is really Tracy's fault that I am here.

She is a total bossy pants and she told me to send this message. Would you like to have a coffee chat so we can get to know each other and see how we could potentially support one another? Question mark. You always 19:00end in a question mark so that their brain will be prompted to reply back. That is the key.

Do not make a statement, end in a question. But you could just simply say, would you like to have a coffee chat and see how we could support each other? Who is going to say no to that? If somebody says no to that, they are not your person. They are a cranky pants and you do not need to be meeting with them anyway.

And the other thing is, my students and clients get stuck in the DMs because their brain tells them they have to say things that do not sound like them. What I want you to do is this. If you walked into a coffee shop and you were meeting a new person, you would not sound like a weird, salesy, spammy, aggressive person, would you?

I would not meet you and go, hey, I am Tracy Beavers, I had a 25 year award winning sales career and I am a business and sales coach with a multi six figure business, and la. No, that is gross. I am going to go, hey Destini, I am so excited to meet you, tell me what you do. Oh, cool. Okay, I do this.

I wonder if there is a way we could support each other. You are just 20:00having a human being conversation. So that is what I would say. If they want to start down this path today, that Skool community is already set up, it is already there. And I am sure there are lots of communities that they are in.

I love that tip. Definitely go check that out. Tracy, any last minute tips for the audience here before we wrap it up?

Yes. Just start small. Start small. Remember that the person on the other end of your communication, whether it is an email that you send or a DM that you send or a coffee chat, the person at the other end is a human being with a heartbeat and a passion for business and a dream, just like you are.

And all we are doing is making connections. We are making friends. That is all we are doing. We are saying, come sit at my lunch table. What do you have for lunch? This is what I have got for lunch. It does not have to be hard. And do not think about the sale. Take the sale out of the equation. Take 21:00the whole thing out of your mind.

This is not a transaction. This is a relationship we are building. The sale and the income will take care of itself. It always does.

I love that tip, and I can attest to that. If you always come to the table with the attitude that you are there to help the other person, everything will just take care of itself, right?

It does. Yes.

Tracy, I know that you have a free gift for everybody. Can you tell folks a little bit about it? And I will make sure that the link is in the show notes for you.

Yes, I do, I am so excited. So it is my Relationship Revenue Engine Workbook, and you can go to tracybeavers.biz/conversations and grab it. In it we are going to talk about similarly to what we talked about today, but it is going to give you an actual formula you can use.

I am going to talk about how revenue is really generated from conversations. It is rarely 22:00anymore that someone sees something and just buys it, unless you are a McDonald's franchise, right? Or Chick-fil-A or Nike, or some big name, and we are not that.

We have got to be more grassroots and organic and actually have conversations. So it is going to show you how to build your revenue engine through relationships in a very easy way. There is a strategy in there called meet five, nurture five, invite one. And that is the magic formula for them to get started in what we are talking about today.

And I also have an episode of my podcast. My podcast is Create Online Business Success, and episode 121 is all about relational marketing versus broadcast marketing. It touches on what we talked about today but goes a little bit deeper as well.

Perfect. And Tracy, I am going to make sure that all those links, including the link to your website, are in the show notes so you guys can go check it out there. Tracy, thank you so much for joining me. I love chatting with you, and I love your 23:00strategies about how to build your visibility.

Thank you so much for having me. And real quick, I want to tell the listeners, y'all, Destini does an amazing job with this podcast. Go leave her a five star review. Go do that now. After you finish listening to this, just hit the five stars and say something wonderful. I know that would make her heart so happy.

It would. So Tracy, thank you. And I did not tell her to say that. So thank you so much for doing that.

You are welcome.

Thanks for listening all the way to the end. I hope you enjoyed this episode today. If you love the show, I would appreciate a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast platform. Have a great rest of your day, and bye for now.

Pin this and save for later

286: You Don't Have a Visibility Problem. You Have a Conversation Problem
Destini Copp
Next

285: Stop Planning a Black Friday Sale. Plan a Black Friday Season