How to Get Clients When Nothing Has Worked So Far – In Just 7 Minutes with Abigail Tiefenthaler

Resources/Links:

• Want more free tips and tricks on how to get that sales strategy that fits you? Click here: Savvysalesstrategy.com/15steps

Summary

Have you tried everything but nothing’s working to keep your business out of that plateau?

You can’t just dive into sales mode and skip marketing. Having a good marketing strategy gives a good foundation for your business to become high selling even in times that you feel like you’re stuck in a plateau.

Abigail May Tiefenthaler is a Co-Founder of Savvy Sales Strategy, a marketing and sales agency that works with professional coaches who want 6-figure years and need implementation with impact to stay focused and on a path to success. Her team is client-getting specialists that create client-getting systems to support coaches with their high-ticket offers.

Get an over-the-shoulder experience on how Abigail helps her clients overcome sudden career shifts from providing service to having a business through tactical planning and understanding their platform.

Check out these episode highlights:

• 01:42 – Abigail’s ideal client: Coaches, service-based professionals, consultants.
• 01:50 – The problem she helps solve: We solve the problem of identifying what’s missing in their marketing that’s making it ineffective. Where are they struggling?
• 03:04 – The symptoms of the problem: They want to have a business. They don’t want to just be a coach and sell services. So, they want to have a business. They want to make an impact.
• 04:05 – Clients’ common mistakes before consulting Abigail: The biggest mistake every small business owner, they go from idea to selling and skip all the strategy steps. They skip the tactical, you know, the tactical planning, and they go right from, “Well, I’m going to do this or I’m going to do that.”
• 06:27 – Abigail’s Valuable Free Action (VFA): Go spend some time really thinking about where you want to go, where you are now, and how you’re going to get there. That will give you your vision and your mission, then go start thinking about where your client is now and where you want the client to go or where the client wants to go and what they need to get there.
• 06:57 – Abigail’s Valuable Free Resource (VFR): Want more free tips and tricks on how to get that sales strategy that fits you? Click here: Savvysalesstrategy.com/15steps
• 07:27 – Q: How do I use social media to actually sell effectively? A: It’s the understanding that there is a difference between social engagement and social selling. We focus on social selling.

Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:

“Marketing creates better selling.” -Abigail Tiefenthaler Share on X

Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Tom Poland 00:10
Greetings, everyone, and a very warm welcome to another edition of Marketing the Invisible. I’m Tom Poland beaming out to you from the Sunshine Coast in Australia, joined today by Abigail May Tiefenthaler. Abigail, a warm good day from Down Under. Where are you hanging out?

Abigail Tiefenthaler 00:24
I’m hanging out in East Tennessee, USA.

Tom Poland 00:28
East Tennessee, USA, fantastic! Probably couldn’t get any further apart than where you are-

Abigail Tiefenthaler 00:34
Probably not.

Tom Poland 00:35
Hands across the water joined in marketing purposes. Folks, sprinkling to Abigail’s bio. She’s the Co-Founder of Savvy Sales Strategy. It’s a marketing and sales agency that works with professional coaches who want to enjoy a six- and I would imagine, sometimes, even, a seven-figure income, but they need implementation. They need implementation of the systems that are going to give them the impact and keep them focused on the path to success. Her team is client-getting specialists. They have done four-year services. They create client-getting and have predictability around the systems which I believe is Abigail’s specialty, and the target market is the coaches who sell high-ticket offers. Now if you’re a coach selling a high-ticket offer, but if you’re someone like a consultant, you’re going to get a lot of value from this as well, so listen up! Abigail, our title is, “How to Get Clients When Nothing Else Has Worked So Far”. There are a lot of people that are going to be able to relate to that. Several questions start now. Out time starts now, I should say. Number one, question one, who’s your ideal client?

Abigail Tiefenthaler 01:42
Coaches, service-based professionals, consultants.

Tom Poland 01:46
Perfect. Thank you. And tell us, question number two, what’s the problem you solve for them?

Abigail Tiefenthaler 01:50
We solve the problem of identifying what’s missing in their marketing that’s making it ineffective. Where are they struggling? We focus on the area of social selling, but Tommy and I have 40 plus years of marketing experience each, so yes, we are that old, it allows us to look at the foundational and strategic aspects of what marketing should be doing, and then identify the right way to promote your coaching business or consulting business.

Tom Poland 02:21
Fantastic. So, you and I were pre-internet. It’s hard to believe, isn’t it, for some people that-

Abigail Tiefenthaler 02:26
Well, and on top of that I grew up in the industry. So, I truly come to marketing as you know, as a child. My dad was a madman, my mother had a home-based business that was tied to the marketing field. So, there was a lot of conversation.

Tom Poland 02:40
It’s in the genes! And I-

Abigail Tiefenthaler 02:42
It’s in the genes!

Tom Poland 02:43
I often think learning those disciplines of marketing, pre-internet, is actually a big advantage when you understand both worlds. So, tell us, question three, five and a half minutes left. What would you say are some of the typical symptoms of the coaches, consultants, and so on who would really benefit from working with you? What’s going on in their business or life that would give them a heads up, and go, “Oh my God. I’ve got those symptoms!”

Abigail Tiefenthaler 03:04
They want to have a business. They don’t want to just be a coach and sell services. So, they want to have a business. They want to make an impact. And the challenge they’ve had is they’ve gone from course to coaching to something, you know, buying the next this or the greatest that. But they don’t really know how to weave them all together. And because they don’t know what they don’t know, and let’s face it, even today’s marketers, many don’t know what they don’t know, it’s incomplete and it’s ineffective. It’s like broken, you know, links in the fence?

Tom Poland 03:37
Yes, they’re probably feeling like they’re that world’s best-kept secret. They’ve got terrific value delivery or great client work. But their marketing seems flawed for years. So, question four, and just under five minutes left. We’re talking about growth-orientated people, like you said that they don’t just want to be coaching, you know, be a single coach, they want a business. They’re growth orientated. They know their market is not working, and they’re going to try stuff. What would you say are some of the common mistakes that your ideal clients have made before they find your solution?

Abigail Tiefenthaler 04:05
The biggest mistake every small business owner, they go from idea to selling and skip all the strategy steps. They skip the tactical, you know, the tactical planning, and they go right from, “Well, I’m going to do this or I’m going to do that.” And so that strategy is where they hone their message. That strategy is where they identify their real audience. So, by missing those critical steps, you’re like lugging 1000 pounds on your back as you’re trying to go uphill. It’s just not a practical way. Some will get some short-term success because they’ve got a good warm market. But after that, that means they’re in sales mode. That doesn’t mean they ever get into marketing mode. Marketing creates better selling. So, if you don’t like selling, that’s another benefit. You want to really focus on having your marketing bring qualified customers to your sales conversations.

Tom Poland 05:02
Right. Selling is what you have to do when your marketing sucks.

Abigail Tiefenthaler 05:06
Yeah. Exactly!

Tom Poland 05:08
But the way you put it was better because you know, if you do your marketing right, the selling is easier. It kind of sets the stage, right? So, the biggest mistake is rushing into tactics, doing a whole lot of marketing before you figured out the strategy. And I think one of the things you said is you got to figure out the marketing message and whether it’s going to get cut through and motivate people before you start, for example, running ads.

Abigail Tiefenthaler 05:29
Exactly, or doing anything– getting on stages, trying to get on stages when you don’t have a message. I will say the last thing, especially in the coaching world, is they don’t have their offer really fleshed out. Even if they want to work with one-on-one clients is that they know what they want to do, but they haven’t really put a framework together. And you don’t need a 10-step process or anything like that. But you need to have a framework because a framework is going to bring confidence to the sales conversation. It’s going to give you purpose in the marketing conversations.

Tom Poland 06:01
There is so much powerful psychology in there and in unpacking that, so that would be worth listening to again, folks. If you’ve got clarity, it gets you around how you’re going to go to the value. It gives you confidence in your marketing. That’s a great top tip in itself. Question five, I might have triggered that prematurely. But I’m after one valuable free action here. Two minutes left. A top tip that people could- it’s not going to solve the whole problem, but it might get them started.

Abigail Tiefenthaler 06:27
Go spend some time really thinking about where you want to go, where you are now, and how you’re going to get there. That will give you your vision and your mission, then go start thinking about where your client is now and where you want the client to go or where the client wants to go and what they need to get there.

Tom Poland 06:46
Terrific! Thank you for that. Question six, valuable free results. We’ve got a URL, I believe, where people can go and find out more. What is the URL?

Abigail Tiefenthaler 06:57
It’s savvysalesstrategy.com/15steps. Savvysalesstrategy.com/15 steps!

Tom Poland 07:07
With a “.com” right in the middle. So savvysalesstrategy.com/15steps. And, people, you’re going to get a lot of information there about lead generation, about marketing about getting your strategy right. Abigail, thank you for that. The last question and we’ve got 45 seconds left. What’s the one question I should have asked you, but didn’t?

Abigail Tiefenthaler 07:27
How do I use social media to actually sell effectively?

Tom Poland 07:32
Oh, I would love the answer to that!

Abigail Tiefenthaler 07:34
It’s the understanding that there is a difference between social engagement and social selling. We focus on social selling. Social selling is designed to bring people into an appointment to talk about doing business, an event, another place, a private Facebook group, or something. So, people don’t understand the difference between social engagement and social selling.

Tom Poland 07:59
Perfect. Abigail, thank you so much for your time and your insights. Folks, savvysalesstrategy.com/15steps. Thanks, Abigail!

Abigail Tiefenthaler 08:08
You’re welcome.

Tom Poland 08:10
Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.