The Coach Who Would Not Sell – In Just 7 Minutes with Annie P. Ruggles

Resources/Links:

• Want factual tips on how you can sell without sacrificing too much? Click here: sellcoachsell.com

Summary

Do you feel like you’ve been chucking in so much money into marketing but nothing seems to work?

Your marketing may not always be perfect and that’s okay. It’s crucial for you to listen to client objections for you to structure your marketing to what your audience wants. This can turn your promising leads into sustainable sales.

Annie P. Ruggles is the Founder of the Non-Sleazy Sales Academy, the Host of Too Legitimate to Quit, and the Author of “The Coach Who Would Not Sell”.

Dive into the world of marketing and sales as Annie shares how you can increase your sales by transforming your marketing into something audience-centric and sustainable.

Check out these episode highlights:

• 01:35 – Annie’s ideal client: Exhausted, over deliverers. Largely coaches, but not all. Super small businesses who have such a deep passion for service, but find that passion feels like it’s in direct opposition with selling and profiting, raising their rates, negotiating, firing clients– all that good stuff.
• 02:22 – The problem he helps solve: I call it the “martyrdom of over-marketing”. And that is what many, many, many service-based businesses do. We’ve been taught, and rightly so that we need to give, and we need to solve problems.
• 03:37 – The symptoms of the problem: We already talked about burnout, that’s a biggie. Poverty, that’s a huge one. If your business isn’t growing, or if you’re spending more on your business and your business is making. I’m not talking about when your business is brand new.
• 04:53 – Clients’ common mistakes before consulting Annie: They realized too late that they need to sell. They go out and buy a sales book designed for sales pits at larger corporations and it drives them crazy.
• 05:54 – Annie’s Valuable Free Action (VFA): The number one piece of sales training that I absolutely hate is the school of thought that you should argue away objections. Objections are just people’s misunderstandings expressed.
• 07:17 – Annie’s Valuable Free Resource (VFR): Want factual tips on how you can sell without sacrificing too much? Click here: sellcoachsell.com
• 07:52 – Q: Is selling manipulative? A: And the answer is yes! Selling is manipulative, but it’s not manipulative without consent.

Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:

“Lean into objections. Take it as an opportunity to prove value more deeply to get to know your client better.” -Annie P. Ruggles Click To Tweet

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

Tom Poland 00:10
Welcome, everyone, to what will be a very energetic little interview. My name is Tom Poland beaming out to you from Sunshine Coast in Australia. This is Marketing the Invisible. I’m joined today by Annie P. Ruggles! Annie, good day from Down Under. A very warm welcome! Where are you hanging out?

Annie P. Ruggles 00:26
I am right dab smack in the middle of the US in Chicago, so hi from yesterday!

Tom Poland 00:32
Because it looks like Paris at midnight in the background?

Annie P. Ruggles 00:34
You know, that’s because of my van, but yes, faking France well here in drizzly gray Chicago.

Tom Poland 00:45
Well, I can understand why you might want to be in Paris at midnight, yeah. Annie P. Ruggles, in addition to being just a bowl of fun, has this really, really very, very interesting little novella. And we’re gonna tell you more about that in a moment but it’s just so well done. If for no other reason, you guys are gonna have to check it out to see how a pro, how a master of intrigue gets their message across. The title today, though I must carry on- let’s go to the bio first. Annie is the Founder of the Non-Sleazy Sales Academy. She’s the host of Too Legitimate to Quit and the author of “The Coach Who Would Not Sell”. And that leads us, Annie, nicely to the title which is, “The Coach Who Would Not Sell”. We’re going to kick off the interview with question number one. Our time starts now. Who is your ideal client?

Annie P. Ruggles 01:35
Exhausted, over deliverers. Largely coaches, but not all. Super small businesses who have such a deep passion for service, but find that passion feels like it’s in direct opposition with selling and profiting, raising their rates, negotiating, firing clients– all that good stuff.

Tom Poland 01:55
Annie P. Ruggles, you know your clients well– exhausted over givers. Are most of them female?

Annie P. Ruggles 02:00
Mostly female, but there are lots of men and non-binary folk but women, because women are more often conditioned in caregiver roles and have a lot of caregiver guilt, which really can impact their selling.

Tom Poland 02:11
Yeah, and impact’s not having boundaries, over-giving, and so on. Great! Thank you for that. Question two, over six months left still, plenty of time. What’s the problem you solve?

Annie P. Ruggles 02:22
I call it the “martyrdom of over-marketing”. And that is what many, many, many service-based businesses do. We’ve been taught, and rightly so that we need to give, and we need to solve problems. And we need to show up for our people in order for them to know, like, and trust us. But if we do that over and over and over, and we never actually ask for anything in exchange, we’re expecting a martyr flip. We’re expecting marketing to take us across that finish line and change departments for us. We won’t! Marketing and sales are different departments, even if they’re all you. So we waste so much time and so much money over marketing, instead of being able to receive and give in turn.

Tom Poland 03:01
Right and so they’re almost the opposite of the people who do nothing but sell, sell, sell. They don’t give value. They’re just “Buy this”. Your people give, give, give and never make an offer.

Annie P. Ruggles 03:12
Give, give, give, give, give, give give, give, burnout, die. Basically.

Tom Poland 03:20
Five minutes left. Let’s move on. Well, you’ve introduced the answer to question three quite well. What are the typical symptoms? How does someone know- they’re looking at their business and their life and going” OMG, Annie P. Ruggles is describing me”. What’s going on that gives them the heads up they need to find out more about what you do?

Annie P. Ruggles 03:37
We already talked about burnout, that’s a biggie. Poverty, that’s a huge one. If your business isn’t growing, or if you’re spending more on your business and your business is making. I’m not talking about when your business is brand new. It takes time for things to take root, right? But if you’re exhausted and you’re just chucking, chucking, chucking marketing out there, that’s one. If you have a great on-paper brand that isn’t converting. You have the shiniest, the funniest, the wittiest, the best, and no one’s buying it. If you’re spending an unsustainable amount of time on your marketing and don’t feel like it’s getting you anywhere. If you’d love to delegate that marketing but have no room to. And most clearly, if you are becoming resentful of the people you’re trying to serve. If you are starting to hurt because they’re not giving back to you, that is a clear sign that you’re either under compensating yourself, not asking enough, or both.

Tom Poland 04:24
The world needs your solution, Annie P. Ruggles. Question four and just under four minutes left. We’re talking about people who are really trying hard to grow their businesses and serve more people. What would you say are the mistakes, the efforts that they typically make that just are never gonna work, that some of our folks listening might be able to avoid?

Annie P. Ruggles 04:53
They realized too late that they need to sell. They go out and buy a sales book designed for sales pits at larger corporations and it drives them crazy. So what they do is they decide that they have to adopt a “coffee is for closers” mentality and “an always be selling” functionality. And they absolutely don’t. That’s too far apart from your giving nature, plus, your clients and prospects are going to get whiplash when this Muppet shows up as a shark.

Tom Poland 05:23
Folks, I told you this was gonna be fun! Muppet shows up as a shark, and it just doesn’t feel right for them. Right? They just-

Annie P. Ruggles 05:30
No! It’s awkward for everybody, right? It’s weird. It’s totally weird!

Tom Poland 05:38
Yeah, it just doesn’t sit right. So let’s flip it! Let’s talk about something people can do. Question five is one valuable free action or step in the right direction. It’s not gonna solve the whole problem, but it might help them to get started. Two and a half minutes left. One top tip.

Annie P. Ruggles 05:54
The number one piece of sales training that I absolutely hate is the school of thought that you should argue away objections. Objections are just people’s misunderstandings expressed, right? So what I want you to do instead is I want you to lean into objections. Take it as an opportunity to prove value more deeply to get to know your client better. Serve them longer if you need to. Give them more time, but I want you to lean into objections, instead of arguing the objections. If we argue the objection we say, “Your experience is invalid here”. Don’t do that. People need to feel empowered in order to purchase.

Tom Poland 06:35
So instead of trying to bat away the objection with “Here are all the reasons why you’re wrong, and that objection is invalid”, you’re leaning into “I understand more about that”-

Annie P. Ruggles 06:46
Yes, I understand that’s an investment for you. I understand you have other decisions involved. Maybe I haven’t been clear enough yet on what you’re receiving, or how I’m different than my competitors, would you like me to illuminate that? Lean in. Lean in y’all! Lean into ’em.

Tom Poland 06:59
And that’s actually a question I had when I was in a similar situation to you so I can understand why you might have that. Let’s unpack that. Empathy! So question, and we’ve got a whopping one minute left. Question number six is a valuable free resource. Where can we send people so they can find out more about, ‘The Coach Who Would Not Sell’?

Annie P. Ruggles 07:17
“The Coach Who Would Not Sell” is a strategy novella written like a 1960s noir movie with a workbook on top of it to save you from this toxic hell. All you have to do, it’s free, is go to sellcoachsell.com and use the special code “TOM SENT ME”.

Tom Poland 07:32
Thank you. So it’s sellcoachsell.com. Use the special code “TOM” T-O-M if you don’t know how to spell that, “SENT ME” and you’ll be able to unlock the secrets. Fantastic! 25 seconds left. What’s the one question I should have asked you but did not?

Annie P. Ruggles 07:52
The number one question you should have asked me and did not, is selling manipulative?

Tom Poland 07:55
And is it?

Annie P. Ruggles 07:56
And the answer is yes! Selling is manipulative, but it’s not manipulative without consent. If you read a great book or watch a great TV show, you’re gonna laugh, you’re going to cry. You’re gonna do that with your consent. Selling is the exact same way. We need them to feel but never against their consent. Done!

Tom Poland 08:11
Annie P. Ruggles, thanks a million! Been great.

Tom Poland 08:15
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.