111 – The Selling Staircase with Nikki Rausch

Karen Yankovich 0:00
You’re listening to the Good Girls Get Rich Podcast episode 111.

Intro 0:06
Welcome to the Good Girls Get Rich Podcast with your host, Karen Yankovich. This is where we embrace how good you are, Girl. Stop being the best kept secret in town. Learn how to use simple LinkedIn and social media strategies and make the big bucks.

Karen Yankovich 0:24
Hello there. I’m Karen Yankovich. The host of the Good Girls Get Rich Podcast coming off a few day conference at Podfest Multimedia Expo. So my voice is still a little shot from that. So just bear with me The episode was recorded before this. So the episode you won’t hear all this crackling you’re hearing in my voice now. But I wanted to get this out to you because if nothing else, I really learned the value of getting my podcast out consistently which has you know, which I’m normally pretty good at but I slacked a little bit in the last few weeks. So we’re back on track and I didn’t want to let this one slide. So if you’ve listened before you love what you’re here today, you know that what we teach around here is simple relationship and heart based LinkedIn marketing. And that was so evident at this gigantic conference I was at this past week, because what I think I know I was lacking. And I see a lot of my clients and a lot of people I speak to are lacking in their conference strategy is the is the tag teaming it with the follow up, right? This particular conference was using an app called Huva. So there’s the opportunity to follow up with people on that. But that requires people to actually be remembering to check on that app after the conference. I love teaching how to use LinkedIn to really maximize the relationships that you build at these conferences, because that’s where the profits are. We go to these conferences, 9 out of 10 times we’re going to conferences because they’re building our business or career in some way, shape or form, right. And if we leave there without have really strong strategy for how to follow up with the people we’ve met. And we’re absolutely leaving money on the table. So what I did at this conference was I actually wrapped the conference with a little with a workshop and some masterminding with a small group of people to help them understand how to maximize their conference time using LinkedIn, to meet people at the conference to get podcast interviews to get people that could be on their show, to maybe even get sponsors or clients. And I was really successful it was it was really a successful experiment, I guess. And you’re gonna see more of that for me. So if you’re going to a conference and you’d like to see some outside the conference, workshopping masterminding, reach out to me because I’m looking for other opportunities to do this because it really was extremely successful. So what I want to remind you guys is that we are here for you. We love your ratings and reviews because that helps us get understand more clearly what we can bring to you on this show. So feel free to go on over to whatever to iTunes or Apple podcasts or whatever your pod catcher that you listen to the show on. And leave us a review or email me or leave a note in a message on speakpipe which you can check out the show notes of this episode, which you can find at karenyankovich.com/111. And let me know what you loved about this episode, maybe what you’d like to hear in a future episode. Right? If I met you at Podfest, and you’ve got a topic that you’d like me to talk about on the show, go on over to the link of the Speakpipe link in the show notes. And leave me a message and let me know what that topic is. Because then we can make the show. You know I wanted this issue this shows for you, right? So if you’ve got a topic you want us to talk about, by all means share that with us. So we have Nikki Rausch on the show today and Nikki somebody it’s rare that I have guests on the show that I don’t know beforehand. And the reason for that is I find just my personal style is that I have better conversations with people that I’ve already had conversations with and I can gauge the kinds of interactions we’re going to have, then coming cold to people. No, we definitely do have guests that I reach out to maybe they’ve got a book or whatever, right. So we definitely do have guests like that. But it’s not as it’s not as common as people that don’t. And so Nikki was somebody that a bunch of people told me, I needed to interview them, she reached out to me, and you know, to be a guest on the show, so I was happy to have her because it turns out when we had this conversation, there’s so much synergy in what she teaches and what I teach. So I can’t wait for you to hear that because as much as I love opposing views, and I’ve got a couple of those lined up from the people I met at Podfest, and I don’t mean opposing I mean, you know, I am very open about the fact that this is the way I teach things and I know it works. But that doesn’t mean that I’m not open to hearing what you do and maybe that’ll help me modify what I do right or what I teach. So we’ve got some really interesting shows coming up around that but this one, you’re going to hear Nikki’s point of view. on some of the things that I’ve already taught you, and sometimes when you hear it differently, it might land so I was really excited about the show. I hope you’re really excited about it as well. So listen in to Episode 111 of the Good Girls Get Rich Podcast with Nikki Rausch. So we have Nikki Rausch with us here on Good Girls Get Rich Podcast this week and after 25 years of experience selling to such prestigious organizations as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Hewlett Packard and NASA, Nikki Rausch decided to trade in her Road Warrior status so she could help entrepreneurs sell in a way that builds relationships creates true connection and results in more close deals and long term clients. That sound familiar to some of you guys that listen to this podcast. Now you know, I wanted to have her right. So she’s a sales coach now and author and speaker and the founder of Sales Maven, Nikki transforms the misunderstood process of selling into techniques, tools and tips that can be successfully incorporated into a process replicable by anyone whose livelihood relies on selling a product or service or themselves. But she’s not helping business owners move their clients along the selling staircase. Nikki enjoys is taking all the beauty that living in the Pacific Northwest affords her. Nikki, thanks so much for being here with us today.

Nikki Rausch 6:09
Thank you so much for having me. I am really excited for this conversation.

Karen Yankovich 6:14
Yeah, I am too. And, you know, when I said to Nikki, when we just we jumped on the call. Most of the guests that we have here are people that I know or I’ve met, or I’ve talked to you before, and Nikki is somebody that I’ve, I’ve seen her work and I loved her work. So when, you know, the opportunity came up to interview her for the podcast, I was like, Yeah, I do want to have her on the podcast. And I don’t do that very often. Because most of the time, I like to know, I like to know that there’s going to be a rapport and there’s you know that there’s a message that that I think that that my listeners will like so we’re kind of coming into this without knowing a lot about each other. So you guys are gonna get to hear us get to know each other.

Nikki Rausch 6:46
I’m super, super honored that you said yes to having me as a guest.

Karen Yankovich 6:50
And I’m honored you wanted to be here. So Nikki, why don’t you tell us a little bit like beyond the bio, tell us a little bit about you know what brought you to under Standing that entrepreneurs need this work?

Nikki Rausch 7:03
Well, what brought me to this was met a few years back before I started my business, I can’t I come from the corporate sales background, and I was a professional sales rep for many, many years, as you kind of talked about in my bio, and I got a little bit disillusioned feeling like there should be something more in my life. And at the time, I didn’t know what that meant, or what what it was going to mean for me. And so I went, I left my corporate job and I went to work for my neuro linguistic programming teacher at the time to help her grow her business. So I was doing sales and marketing for her. And also some event planning and, you know, teaching and assisting and all that stuff. And that was when I started really meeting entrepreneurs and started going to networking meetings. And when I was at networking meetings, I was hearing buying signals all the time from people and the way they were communicating and I was seeing people miss buying signals and I was noticing that a lot of entrepreneurs struggled with sales conversations either mostly because they didn’t understand the structure. Nobody had ever taught them that. And I started helping some of them really on the side just because I really liked these people. They’re super fun to be around. I am so inspired by entrepreneurs and that passion that they bring to what they do. And I just wanted to kind of help because sales to me felt very natural. I thought everybody knew how to do this, you know, because I’ve been doing it for so long.

Karen Yankovich 8:33
Right? And you know, we often think that about something that we’re good at that.

Nikki Rausch 8:37
Yeah!

Karen Yankovich 8:37
Marketable skill. Everybody knows how to cook or, or do whatever it is right. And it’s so is your probably your best marketable skill.

Nikki Rausch 8:44
Yeah, and so being able to see some success by offering them some, you know, suggestions and techniques when they were open to it. And really, it was somebody that I had become really good friends with at a networking group that was like, why are you not teaching people how to do this, like, Why is this not your business? Like, we need you? And I thought at the time, you know, again, like, everybody knew this who’s gonna possibly pay me to do this and so my business was really born out of somebody pointing out to me like Nikki, you have a skill set people will benefit from and if you just put yourself out there, you know, like, put the offer out there and they kind of show up and and it that’s what happened. And so here I am six and a half years into my business and having the time of my life working with the most amazing people like I seriously get up every day and I go through a list of the things I’m grateful for and it’s always full of the people in my life and these entrepreneurs that I get to spend time with.

Karen Yankovich 9:49
Well, I bet they’re grateful to you too. Because with you know, in your bio you listed you know if you are selling a product or service or themselves, but honestly most of our livelihoods rely on sales most of our lives result rely on sales, right? I mean, we sell, we’re putting our kids to bed. So, you know, I feel like this is a skill that when we get better at it, and by the way, it’s a skill that I am always looking to get better at. I mean, I will you know, I will go to my grave wanting to get better at sales because it’s there’s always room to grow, right? Because the better I get at it, the more the more people that I can help that are the right people right because you you know you sometimes when you’re talking to people, you realize they’re not the right people, the better I get at it, the better I can bring the exact right people to me and the less time I have to spend weeding through the wrong people.

Nikki Rausch 10:42
Yes.

Karen Yankovich 10:43
And time as the older I get time becomes more and more precious to me.

Nikki Rausch 10:48
I totally agree with that. I think it’s so important in one of the main reasons why learning how to hone your selling skills and doing it in a way that is super authentic to you. So I often people will hear me say I don’t teach people how to sell like me, I teach you how to be strategic in your conversations, so that your natural personality can come through and that you can attract your ideal people and you can repel the people that are never going to buy from you or aren’t gonna resonate with your message or just going to time suck from you, you know that that never actually want to pay you money. And so I truly believe that it is about learning these skills to say, like you said, to save yourself time, but also the inks that sometimes goes into people with the selling process of like, you know, How many times should I you know, call or follow up with somebody? Or how much time should I wait between calls and like all that energy that we expend, trying to figure out the answers like I teach people, here’s what you do so that you no longer have to have that eggs or worry about those things or spend time and energy to Trying to go after people who are never going to buy from you.

Karen Yankovich 12:04
Oh my gosh, so important, so important. So you talk in your bio about a Selling Staircase kept. Tell us about that.

Nikki Rausch 12:13
So the Selling Staircase is my signature process. It’s my step by step process of how you lead somebody through a sales conversation. So the oftentimes when you hear people talk about sales, they talk about filling your funnel. And, you know, I come from that corporate background, I got screamed at me all the time by my sales managers like fill your funnel, and I get the concept of the funnel and I do you think it’s important, and I think it’s a lot of marketing activities. And what this where the sales funnel I think lacks is that it doesn’t teach you how to move somebody through the sales conversation. And so I developed this five step approach that I call the Selling Staircase and this I actually just wrote a book about it this last year. It’s it’s really of how do you lead somebody from step to step up so that you get to the place where you can exchange dollars for service or product. And there’s the five steps. So step one is the introduction step. And that’s when people are being introduced to you, or you’re being introduced to them. So you want to make sure you’re making a powerful first impression. It can also be that introduction phase might be people who have been in your life for a really long time, but you’ve never actually introduced the concept of working together or, like what it is that you do, like if you go to, you know, a party with your friends, how many of them can really tell you what you do when you’re an entrepreneur? And if they can’t, there’s a decreased financing in that introduction step.

Karen Yankovich 13:43
Yeah. So I might stop you after each step because…

Nikki Rausch 13:46
Yeah, go ahead.

Karen Yankovich 13:47
… the stuff to do so I you know, like so for those of you that listen that because of the LinkedIn strategies that you get around this, this is why your profile is so important, right? This is why I’m like up your butt about getting a great profile because it’s something Is your first impression. And I’ve had clients that have said, you know, listen, I connected with my doctor on LinkedIn. And the next time I went in for a physical I, he said, I didn’t know your health coach, and now I’m doing workshops for his patients. I have a client that just, you know, Jackie, if you’re listening, I’m still bragging about you, she had a conversation with a friend. And because the friend was so clear on what she did, because of the works that are how LinkedIn profile, mentioned it to her husband and her husband reached out and said, I think my company might be able to use your work, right? Yes. So it isn’t, none of it was something none of that was selling, right? It was all serving, but it came from a place of making sure you are clear on what you do, and and how how? Because sometimes that is where the great sales come from, right when you’re sitting in someone’s backyard and having a barbecue and they had no idea that you were this, you know that you had these skills. And and that is sales and that’s the best kind of sales, I think.

Nikki Rausch 14:56
Yeah, and that’s, I mean, that’s where the process starts right? And until that happens, you might see those people for 20 years, once or twice a year, and have no idea that they have something that you could serve them with. And so I always think you’re doing a disservice to people when you when you don’t know these skills when you’re not sure how to make a powerful first impression when you can’t articulate what you do and how it relates to the person you’re in conversation with. And so like you said, having those your profile and people being able to go like I had no idea that you did this, this is so phenomenal, because then now that leads to step two, which is creating curiosity. And curiosity is such an important step in the sales process. Because this is where we get into some conversation or some dialogue in some way that you want to be able to pique somebody’s interest and or identify quickly that they have got no interest. So there’s no point in trying to lead them up the selling staircase. They’re not Not a potential client, which is fine. If you’re just out of barbecue and having a good time with people, it’s totally fine for them to just be acquaintances or friends. And don’t miss these opportunities to create curiosity. So there’s a there’s a technique that I teach around how to create curiosity. This is just one piece of it. And you can do this in your LinkedIn profiles. You can also do this in your messaging when you’re sending it out to people. But we want to have somebody want to ask us a follow up question. And so the way that I teach in a face to face or voice to voice type conversation is it’s how you answer questions to start. That will start to pique people people’s curiosity. So I have a technique that I always compare curiosity to how you call a dog versus how you call a cat, which I know sounds a little crazy.

Karen Yankovich 16:52
No, I want to hear it, I guess.

Nikki Rausch 16:54
Yeah. So you know, when you want to get a dog’s attention, you you I don’t know if you have it. Dogs so you tell me Karen, do you have a dog?

Karen Yankovich 17:01
I do have a dog.

Nikki Rausch 17:03
Okay, so this will see if this relates to so if you want to get your dog’s attention if you do this like high pitch like, give me a boy Come here, you know or girl or I don’t know if it’s girl or dog boy boy but, and dogs respond to that they’re like, oh, something funny is going on like, well, I want to go see what Karen’s up to like I’m totally in. But when you’re really excited about what you do and who you are, and you show up at events or you show up in conversations, and you have what I call dog calling energy, you turn people off, because we are skeptics and…

Karen Yankovich 17:35
I love dog calling energy. That’s a great such a great example. I agree. I agree. I’ve talked to people and you’re like what this chick’s crazy.

Nikki Rausch 17:45
Yeah, like she’s she’s too much for me, like Who else can I talk to? Or like, I don’t think I don’t think she can help me because I can’t get past this. Like, I also, people who have dog calling energy tend to word vomit over people. So they want to like tell them everything. little thing that they know or really establish themselves as, like the experts. I see this all the time in LinkedIn invites where people send me like their full bio of like, here’s all my list of accomplishments and why I’m a really big deal. That’s very dog calling energy. That to me is like the No thanks. Total turnoff, I agree. So instead, think about how you call a cat. So how you call a cat is you do this little thing where like, Here kitty kitty, and cats will like check you out. When you do that. They’re like, what’s Karen doing? Like, maybe I should see what’s going on. And they may come. But what we’re trying to do is get enough attention for them to want to know a little more. So the way you create some catcalling energy is it’s the way that you answer questions, and I call these Here kitty kitty answers. So for instance, if somebody says right now like, hey, Nikki, how are you? Like I could say fine, but that’s probably not going to create any like Here kitty kitty. So instead I might say something like, Oh, I am having the most amazing week I just recorded a training yesterday for 1100 business women. Now that might get somebody to be like, what was the training about? Or who are these women? Or what do you do that you would be doing a training for 1100 women that create somebody wanting to know a little bit more so now I have permission to share a little bit about oh, I put together this training it’s on this topic. I’m a sales coach. That is gonna allow them to go oh, maybe I need help with sales or like, Oh, that’s interesting. Good for you. What do you think about the you know, game this weekend, they could totally change the topic and not pick it up at all, which is totally fine. And it is my job to plant those seeds to see if somebody would like to know more and or if they might have a need for what I do.

Karen Yankovich 19:59
So cool. So cool. That’s really interesting. I love that creating curiosity. Okay, so then what’s next?

Nikki Rausch 20:06
So once you’ve created some curiosity, people who would like to know more start to give you what I call buying signals, and buying signals lead to step three. So it’s your job to pick up these buying signals, like somebody going like, Hmm, maybe I could use some help with that. So then my next step is to move them to step three, which is the discovery. And the way you do that is by issuing an invitation to say, Well, is it something you’d like to chat about more like, maybe we should schedule a time just to get to know each other? Or maybe we should schedule a time to talk about ways that I might be able to serve you. And so step three is the discovery. This is your these are priceless, priceless times with people. And it’s your job during a discovery to assess what’s the need or the problem or the wants that this person has. And then make sure that you’re asking questions in a way that leads People to seeing that you have the solution for them. So what I mean by that, just to add some clarification is be really aware of the questions that you’re asking during a discovery. And you want to make sure that you’re asking questions about things that you potentially help people with. So I don’t ask a bunch of questions in a discovery about what kind of CRM are you using? Or what kind of, you know, sales tracking system do you use? Because that’s not what I do? I teach conversation sides of sales. So when I’m asking people about their sales, I’m asking them like, How good are you at creating curiosity? Do you know how to clearly lay out a proposal? Like the things that I teach? That’s what I’m asking in a discovery call? Because those questions ultimately lead people to say, yes, Nikki has a solution for me, and I’m interested in her giving me a proposal or No, she’s not for me. And that’s all Either way, but Right, right, make sure that your discovery is really leading people to hiring you. So I was like, this is one one of the things I work with clients on a lot privately is what are their questions and the discovery. And most of the time, I find that people are asking way too many questions. They’re spending way too much time on those discovery calls. And they’re not really setting themselves up to earn that business because they don’t ask the right questions in the right way.

Karen Yankovich 22:31
Wow, interesting. Can you give us an example of like, a quote, like a, you know, just something random, you know, some kind of coach maybe that you’ve worked with and questions that make sense?

Nikki Rausch 22:41
Yes. So for instance, let me think about somebody I worked with recently, where we did some discovery with her and what what we found was in the discovery, she was asking a lot of questions about like, big dream type stuff like where Do you want to be in 10 years? And who do you want to be there with you? And, and I was like this, this relates not at all to your business. So yeah, these are great big questions. But this isn’t going to lead somebody to hiring. And it creates a lot of story during this conversation, which sucks time. And so you might run out of time with somebody because you’re, you’re asking them to go to these like, really big ideas and dreams, but you’re never getting to the nitty gritty about like, what do you actually do for somebody? Well, what I do is I coach them through like their seat, like I become their CFO, like, okay, so we don’t need to know all this big stuff. Like maybe you want to know that once they’ve hired you, but you don’t need to know in order to earn their business.

Karen Yankovich 23:48
So what is a question that they should ask that you would recommend not using that example? Like, what would be one or two good questions?

Nikki Rausch 23:55
Yeah. So one of the questions is like what’s important to you in the next year, about Growing your sales, right? Like, because as a CFO, your CFO needs to know like, Where’s your focus? Where are you going to be spending your money? Or where are you spending your money? Right like that. Those are the types of questions that should be being asked, like, how effective Have you been with your marketing efforts? Do you know what your return on investment?

Karen Yankovich 24:21
I love that really cool. Okay, so then what’s the next step?

Nikki Rausch 24:25
Okay. So once you’ve done a really great discovery for somebody, the next step is the logical step is to lay out a proposal about how to work with with you, right. So in the proposal, one of the things I will say is moving from discovery to proposal, don’t just launch right into a sales pitch, like you’ve done a good discovery. Don’t just go like, Well, here’s all the ways that you can work with me and here’s all the ways you can hire me. Instead, ask permission. And the way that I do that is I would say to somebody, you know, based on everything we’ve talked about so far, I do see a couple key ways that we could work together. Are you interested in having me talk Through those, because now as soon as they say yes, now I’ve got permission to say, great. So based on everything you’ve shared, there are three key ways that we could work together. We could work together privately in a one on one session, we could, you know, I could talk to you a little bit about a masterclass that I’m teaching next month, or you could come in and join my society, which is my membership platform, and you get access to training based on those three things, which is most interesting to you. And then they’re going to tell me, right, like I would, I’m more interested in working on with, you know, working with you one on one, Nikki. Great. So now I’m going to talk through here is the way that I work with clients, one on one, and then once I’ve laid out the proposal, the next step in the process is the close. So I lay out the proposal and I say, you know, so here’s how we work together one on one. Does that sound like something you’d like to move forward with? That’s the close that’s me issuing a close statement. And if you’re not issuing close statements, During your proposal, like at the end of your proposal, if you’re just saying like, Well, you know, let me know, look it over, let me know what you think, no, you’re missing that sale, you have got to issue a close statement to make it really easy for someone to make a decision like, yes, I’m ready to move forward. And or it also gives them the opportunity to voice any objections or concerns they might have. And if you don’t issue the close statement, sometimes you don’t get what those objections or concerns are, therefore, you’re never never able to overcome them, and therefore they never hire you. And that means they never get what it is that you can really do for them in their business or in their life.

Karen Yankovich 26:41
Oh my gosh, absolutely. Absolutely. I completely agree. And I think that that is a really important piece of understanding how important it is how important getting good at sales is to your business and your life. Because when, you know, somehow somehow we’ve gotten this impression Sales is a bad thing. But what reality is, is sales helps people make life changing decisions in their lives, you know, that they might not have made otherwise, you know, and, and I teach this stuff and I sub remind myself that sometimes, you know, when I, when I see people get results in the programs that I offer, and I think if they didn’t invest this, you know, thousand dollars, they wouldn’t have gotten this job at $85,000 a year more than they’ve ever made before in their life. You know, so where is my hesitancy to coming from in introducing this or trying, you know, or helping them make the make a yes decision, right, where’s my hesitancy coming from because I know the results people get. And if they, you know, if they if we do what we’ve always done, right, we get what we got.

Nikki Rausch 27:46
Yeah. I love that you said that in and it’s so true that the fact of the matter is, most people won’t decide to move forward with you until you have I always say invited because I liked it. But you can also use ask in place of invite, but until you ask them and and so then they don’t get that, like whatever it it’s going to do for them in their life. I mean, what you just said this example of somebody getting a job that’s going to bring in 85,000 more than they’ve ever made. Those are life changing things. Exactly. And it just changed their life, it’s going to change the life of their family members, and it’s probably going to change the life of the people, they end up hiring to do other things for them. Right. And so the long term effect of what you are doing by issuing invitations, giving people opportunities to purchase from you, it changes lives. And this is why I agree with you. Sales is so crucial to understanding because it makes a difference for the person who’s buying it more. I mean, yes, it makes a difference for you, but it makes substantial difference to the person who takes you up on your offer and then is able to implement Whatever it is that you’re teaching or doing, or even if it’s just them enjoying something, right, like you’re selling vacations, it doesn’t matter what it is. But these are life changing experiences for people.

Karen Yankovich 29:12
Yeah, yeah, it’s true. It’s true. And, and, you know, I want you know, often, often the people that you’re helping and that I’m helping there, they don’t their businesses, their yoga teachers, or they are coaches or consultants or attorneys or whatever they are, right? I mean, it doesn’t matter what you are, you could be you know, you could be working for a corporation as a, you know, as an accountant, whatever it is, doesn’t matter. Yeah, that’s what they want to be doing. Right. But without the sales piece, they’re not going to be able to continue to do that as successfully as they might if they nail the sales piece. And that’s why I think it’s so important. That’s why I wanted to bring you on the show because I want people to understand that the better you get at this piece, the the less time you can spend on it, and you can spend more time teaching your Coaching your clients, you know, taking people on hikes to, you know, the Appalachian Trail, whatever it is you do, right, the better you get at the sales piece, the less you have to do it, right to meet the numbers and the goals that you want to meet for your life in your business.

Nikki Rausch 30:13
Yeah. And by being really good ahead, you do attract your ideal people, you will get to work with people who will blow your mind. Like I feel this way every day with my clients. Like honestly, I pinch myself, I’m like, I can’t believe that I’m getting to work with this person. And it’s because I’m really good at sales. And if you ask them and track back, like, how did we get here, I follow this same step approach. Like I one of the biggest mistakes that people often make in the selling process, because they don’t understand it, is they try to go right from introduction to close and they skip all the steps in between, which is what turns people off and frankly, like I get these every day and LinkedIn connections, you know, connect with me and then they go right in for the sale and then I’m like, I’m Now I’m not even interested in being connected to you. So no thanks.

Karen Yankovich 31:04
Yep. Yep. And you know, when the the process that I teach on LinkedIn is I basically, you know, obviously, there’s a strategy and the strategies, you know, you takes you through different processes, but I actually like to build in what I call a probing call before the call you’re talking about. Because on LinkedIn, there’s so many people doing exactly what you said you’re doing, and I want those to be I am ruthless about them being 15 minutes long, not a minute longer. Because I’m 15 minutes. You can’t tell me I can’t tell you, but I can probe and see if there’s see if it’s worthwhile for us to have that next call. And then, but truly, you have to truly be coming to it with an open heart that, you know, can I introduce you to someone, right, maybe that maybe the way that’s gonna go is you’re going to introduce them to someone, you know, but it is just kind of like going to a networking event. But just like you go into a networking event, if you walk up to somebody and you stick your hand out, and you say, I’m Karen Yankovich, and you should buy my LinkedIn strategy. They’re going to be like, see ya, right. Yeah. So that so those In between steps are the relationship building things. And, you know, they don’t always work if you’re selling pencils right, or $5 things, but, but I know that almost everybody that listens to the show can craft some kind of an offer that makes it worthwhile to build relationships like this and to have to invest some time and doing these kinds of calls and learning, you know, and honing these kinds of skills. Because we get, we get teased, you know, with the sexiness of, you know, create a sales funnel and sit on the beach and money’s gonna pour into your business. And, you know, I mean, like, I love that I would love to be doing that. And I definitely have, you know, a funnel that brings in some money, but that came way down the road. You know, that was not the first thing that I did in my business. The first thing that I did in my business was like, Okay, I need to sell some stuff. I need to make some money. I need people to buy, you know, buy some packages for me, and you know, and I think that these kinds of conversations that you lay out in your Selling staircase makes it makes it makes it simpler to really get there.

Nikki Rausch 33:06
Yeah. And that’s that’s what it should be sales to me. And I really again, I focus on the relationship side of sales. And it should be easy. And not just for you, frankly, but also for the person that you’re in conversation with. For both parties. It should be easy, it should feel seamless, it should feel simple. And it should feel authentic. Otherwise, it feels this is why sales gets a bad name is right is so many people are doing it poorly, because either nobody ever taught them how to do it, or they’ve just never invested in the time and the energy and maybe a little bit of money on how to do it well. And it will make a huge difference to who you get to work with.

Karen Yankovich 33:49
Yeah, cool. So if people want to take the first step to getting to know more about you and to learn a little bit about the techniques that you teach, how can they do that?

Nikki Rausch 34:00
Well, one of the ways they can do it is I’d love to offer a gift for your audience that are listening. And if they like, if they like this message, then I have an ebook called closing the sale where I kind of walk through a little bit more in some of the some of the steps and give you some language. So you can get that by visiting my website, if you go to yoursalesmaven.com/gggr. So that stands for Good Girls Get Rich.

Karen Yankovich 34:27
So we will put that link in everywhere that you’re listening to this show. So thank you for that. Thank you for that we love presence, and I definitely want to dig into it because like I said, I always like you. There’s a few things you said that I’m thinking I’m gonna incorporate that into what I do is Yeah, because it’s it is it is an important piece of what I do. And it’s important. Frankly, it’s an important piece of what I teach. You know, um, you know, we teach the LinkedIn process to get people on the phone consistently, you know, with their perfect people, but at the end of the day, if you don’t What to do once you get on the phone with them. And that’s not I mean, I teach a little bit of that, but that’s why I wanted to have you on because I think that when people hear this, they, it will help them it will help simplify the entire process. You know, if you need to get on the phone with 20 people to make one sale, the better you get at the sales process, maybe you can get that down to 15 people. Right? And that saves you so much time and that’s what I want. I don’t want people spending all of their time you know, talking to the wrong people or not closing sales. I want your friend to talk to five people and close to them, right but yes, you know, let’s take it one step at a time.

Nikki Rausch 35:37
Yes, my goal is always to get my clients over 50% like if you’re going to get on the call with somebody I want you to close any more than 50% and it’s pretty common for my clients to get 70 to 80% and that just means also that you need to be really clear on who you’re getting on the phone with.

Karen Yankovich 35:52
Yeah, so cool. So Nikki, I have to bring one of the things is just when the universe those these things at me, I have to bring them up. So one of the other things that I teach in in my program. So those of you in my programs have heard this, I really want people to think big, not just with their business goals and their life goals, but with the people they’re connecting with. I think on LinkedIn, we can use LinkedIn to really connect with people we never really dreamed would be able to be in our world with us, right? So, and everybody always asks me Who is the person that you want to meet? If you could get if you can find a way to work your way into developing a relationship with people that can introduce you to somebody who would it be? And for me, my answer is always Melinda Gates. And you have just said that you started the Melinda Gates Foundation. So…

Nikki Rausch 36:35
Well, I sold to them. That’s how…

Karen Yankovich 36:37
You sold to them. Okay, so that’s interesting. But you know, to me, because I, you know, I know she is out there on, she’s got a new initiative, I think, supporting women in to be more successful. And I’m like, well, that’s what I do. I think Melinda Gates, I need to be BFFs. So when I saw that I wanted to, you know, I needed to just shout that out. So I’m putting it out there to the universe. Anybody listening today that can take me down the next step of the introduction because I think everyone in Melinda Gates world needs to take my LinkedIn profile challenge. That’s what I think.

Nikki Rausch 37:09
There you go. I agree. If I could open that door for you, I definitely would. Now I’m like, my brain is like spinning like, hmm…

Karen Yankovich 37:21
And I’m not asking you for any favors. I’m just saying when I when I read that, and I know that there’s people that are that have heard me say that before, because she just recently announced this initiative, maybe three or four months ago. And I was like, wow, you know, that’s right in line with the work that I do, because I’ve really reframed. I mean, my podcast is called Good Girls Get Rich, I help men but my business really is primarily about supporting women to step into this new role with and build relationships that can using LinkedIn that can further their life and their business. So yeah, pretty funny.

Nikki Rausch 37:49
I love that. And I am totally about like, please use your network like you’re networking doors for you for sure. And I teach a whole process around how do you Do it in a way that again doesn’t come across like weird and awkward and you know, but actually feels really good to you and the people that you’re asking for connections and introductions.

Karen Yankovich 38:11
Well, Nikki, this is might be our first conversation, but I hope that it’s not our last conversation because I think that there’s a lot of things that that we can do together to support each other’s businesses and I hope everybody that’s listening takes Nikki up on her offer to get her her book. I know that I’m going to be doing that because I I feel like I feel like there’s a electronic highlighter in my future as I go through her book.

Because I you know, I want to get I this is the one thing that I always want to get better. I always want to get better at the sales conversations and, and honestly, everybody listening should be feeling the same way. Because it simplifies your life.

Nikki Rausch 38:45
Yes, it will make things so much easier for you. So thank you so much, and I hope it’s I hope it’s not our last conversation. I’d love to continue this with you and if I can support you in any way, like, please reach out to me and anybody listening If I can support you, that’s why I’m here to be of service. So I’m, I’m happy to, I’m happy to make connections for people. And I’m also happy to support people in learning how to like hone those skills get better at it and, and it gets easier.

Karen Yankovich 39:14
Awesome. Well, Nikki, thank you so much for being here today. I really appreciate it. And look forward to see what comes next for us. Thank you. Nikki was amazing, wasn’t she? Oh my gosh, that was such a fun conversation. So for sure, take advantage of getting to know Nikki better. And following her. All of her links are in the show notes below. Totally check that out. And I’d love you to stay connected with me, you know, behind the scenes of the show beyond these conversations, we’re taking these conversations to LinkedIn. You can connect with me on LinkedIn at karenyankovich.com/in/karenyankovich Join me in my LinkedIn tips group on Facebook. You can find that karenYankovich.com/facebookgroup all the links are in the show notes below. And that’s where we continue these conversations. And that’s where you’re a part of my Facebook group, you’re getting behind the scenes not shown to anyone else. videos. Like if I come up with a topic that I want to share with my audience I often shared in that Facebook group and that’s it. So you definitely want to be a part of that Facebook group. So join me over there as well. I will see you there and I’ll see you back next week for another episode of the Good Girls get Rich Podcast.