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Welcome to Make More Money without Selling Your Soul with me Polly Lavarello, evergreen marketing expert. This podcast is for you if you are an online entrepreneur who is looking to simplify their business to scale.  On this podcast you can expect to hear regular talk about wealth, about selling and about wellbeing. Because I believe these three core fundamental things are pivotal to your growth moving forward.

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Hello and welcome to make more money without selling your soul with myself Polly Lavarello, evergreen marketing expert and growth strategist.

Oh my gosh, this is a juicy one. Because let’s face it, how do we make sales with offers? What prevents us from making sales? Having a bad offer? Or an offer that nobody sees the value in? And people come to me and they’re like, is it too expensive? Is it this? Is it that you know what it always boils down to it so that people are seeing the value in your offer? So how do we avoid the pain, the pain of launching something and it flopping The pain of getting an evergreen funnel up and running, spending all that time and effort and energy and resources on a good copywriter and new landing page software and all the bells and whistles? And still Tumbleweed? Because yes, well, I am a big advocate of Evergreen. And that’s not to say there aren’t evergreen funnels that entirely flop? Of course they do. And is it the funnel? Is it the software? Is it the copywriter they hired? No, it’s nearly always your offer. You can have the shiniest funnel, you can have the best copywriter. But if your offer in itself is flawed, is to say me is various other things which I’m about to dive into, then it doesn’t mean anything. And I see this mistake time and time again. I see people with all the best will in the world incredible expertise under their belt getting really excited because they’ve just discovered Oh, that LeadPages isn’t too difficult to use, or I’ve just found a VA who knows their way around this. And they’re going to make something that’s going to look super duper professional. I mean, how is anyone going to look at the sales page and not want to buy this? Okay, and all this way thinking is so so so, so, so flawed. And you see this as well in like, you know, busy business masterminds were a little competitive street can come out that desire to be like, Oh, that person has had a big launch, I want a big launch to what she do. Oh, she got a Facebook ad manager, okay, I’ll get one of those. She paid for like LeadPages Okay, tick, all, I’ll do that as well. Well, this all feels a bit uncomfortable financially, but I’m gonna do it anyway. Because if she’s made it work, and she’s definitely not as skilled or knowledgeable as me, then I can definitely make this work too. And then they go in all gung ho all excitable, all feeling like I spent all this money.

So surely it’s going to come back between the kind of practical action and that confident act of I believe in this, surely, it’s all going to come back. And here lies all the broken hearts of all the online entrepreneurs who’ve taken this way of doing things, and it’s not worked out for them. I mean, to be honest with you, it was this very same journey that I saw people go through on repeat, which is why I kind of, I’m not going to quite use the word pivoted because they still do support with Facebook ads. But why I moved into this area of supporting people to create offers that sell on evergreen, because it was so painful to watch people with all the huge high levels of conviction, huge levels of expertise, still failing, and not really understanding why. So I’m really, really, really, really excited about this particular episode, because I’m going to be uncovering the five reasons why your offer isn’t selling. And these are just all so simple, so easy to understand, and they genuinely will transform how you do business and how you make money and make it all a hell of a lot more simple, which is always my goal in life always. Because I can tell you something for nothing, you are probably overcomplicating how you make money in your business right now. So let’s look at the five things that you’ve been doing wrong so far, and how you can be doing them better. And it may be that you listen to all of these and go I haven’t done this one good for you, if you but unfortunately when it comes to this list, you can just be doing one of them and that can be enough for why it’s not working out so do not you know go off and get your cup of tea and forget about this episode and not come back to it. If number one doesn’t resonate, because chances are two or three or maybe four or five will Okay, so firstly, yeah, didn’t validate it. Now hopefully this one has knocked your flippin socks off that Here’s so one thing that when I say to people, did you validate your offer? They’re like, validate. What’s that? Do I need to validate? What is validating? Now, if you’re a marketer, you’ll be like, Yeah, I know about this. And this is the thing, right? There’s a huge gap between us marketers, you know about validating your offer, and everyone else who doesn’t. And here’s the other thing, which is kind of makes my stomach twist and turn and feel a bit, when I think about it, is that when it comes to being a business mentor, when it comes to being a business coach?

Well, one, if you’re a business coach, it’s your job to extricate the knowledge from other people. And therefore you made us entirely, unless you have it in your internal wisdom, that it’s a good idea to validate and offer, chances are, it just will never be part of the process. And if you’re a business mentor, unfortunately, there’s a good number of business mentors out there. Particularly, unfortunately, I hate to say this, but in the kind of female space where I think because it doesn’t sound very sexy, saying have conversations, use a Google Doc as your sales page, and things like that, that they feel inclined to avoid that and instead will stand by and watch people spend a fortune on Facebook ads, and building funnels, when actually, this fundamental piece isn’t very sexy, does involve getting your hands a bit dirty. But it’s actually really, really simple and will save you so much time and so much money. And if you go to any online business space, where it’s mentorship from predominantly men, I rarely ever see this stage skipped. I mean, like I say, I love women, I mean, like pretty much only support women. So I don’t like to make this a sex thing. But I do find it very interesting. Because this is my geeky marketing perspective, as to why it seems to be that I see a lot of men advocating for this strategy, and that it’s really bypassed by a lot of women. And I know when I talk about this inside Cisco, where the power one, you know, this is part of the scope of the power, one strategy is that you validate your offer, before you even think about building an evergreen funnel. And I know it makes people uncomfortable, I have to have conversations with people, I show them a Google Doc, when I want them to invest 1000s of pounds and working with me a Google Doc, not a pretty shiny sales page, I’ve got a VA, she doesn’t cost very much Can I Can I just skip ahead to the sales page bit because I just think it will look a bit more professional.

And you know, maybe if they’d get to look at sales page, I won’t have to actually have a conversation with them. Because I’ll just be all bought in and it’ll look really shiny silver trust in the value mom, I get it like I really do. And I think my head was in that space too. The first time anyone ever said, validate your offer with a Google Doc. But honestly, ever since I’ve ever since I did it for the very first time to scale with the power one I have never looked back. I absolutely love using a Google Doc. And more importantly, before anyone even looks at sales page, they have a conversation with me. So essentially what I’m talking about, because I’m know I’m jumping ahead a bit here, when I’m talking about validating your offer. I mean, don’t go build a funnel. I do mean be clear on what your offer is. Yes, you do need a clearer idea of what your programme framework is, what the outcomes are, who it’s for that stuff’s really important. You can’t skip that part. But what you can skip is building out some big long slit Scelzi marketing kind of expensive funnel, and running ads to it. Because ultimately, even if you have a very small audience, my first ever following that I sold to I had 50 people on my mailing list, and 400 followers on Instagram and I sold my first ever group programme. Admittedly, it was quite low ticket. But that was how many people were on it.

And I managed to get 10 people signed up because it was a good offer. I’d really listen to what all my one to ones where they were getting stuck, what it is they needed more of. And I could see all the people I was turning away because they couldn’t afford my one to ones and I knew exactly what it was that they needed. So I turned it into a 12 week programme, the first I ever did and 2020 may 2020. And you know, it gave me the confidence to recognise Heck, I can do this stuff. This is good. This is really good. And you know, essentially, it was the beginning of a kind of journey from which I never turned back. But that didn’t have a slick sales page. That was a webinar that people were invited to with the most basic opt in page ever a zoom call, but they all attended. And then essentially me sending a series emails where I invited them to book a call and have those conversations. And that’s when I’d outline to them what we’d be covering in a few weeks. And at the time, all I had was a payment link and a simple Google Doc, which they could just refer back to afterwards, which would just confirm essentially, what I’d shared with them on the call. I didn’t wait for them to learn about the price of it. When I sent them a Google Doc, I shared the price on the call. This is a tiny little side tip bid tip. But honestly, one thing I see a lot of people do when they’re feeling a bit anxious about what they’re charging, is to not mention prices on the call. Now you can only imagine the impression that gives right the second I say that I hope you’re already thinking, Oh yeah, that probably doesn’t sound like I have much confidence in it and therefore why should they?

But more importantly, if someone does have an objection, like, oh wait, I do have that money, but I think I’d have to pay it in three instalments and you only have a two part instalment plan. You want to hear that? Because chances are, you’d be like, oh, yeah, I can do a three month payment plan for you. You want to hear that objection? Because you can do something with it. If they say the thing that we’re really terrified of hearing, which is, oh, maybe not. Now, I think I’ll come back in a few months time or you know, it’s not for me, then that tells us somewhere in our marketing, we have not been clear on the value that we’re providing. Because if they were interested enough to book a call, but aren’t then converting into a sale, then unless they’re a bad fit for the programme, the reason why they’re doing that is because you haven’t got your messaging bang on the money about why it’s worth and Mike, but that is invaluable feedback, right? That you wouldn’t have if people were simply looking at a sales page. So don’t try and go the easy what feels more professional route, because I promise you it isn’t. validate your offer first. This is probably the most valuable thing you can take away from this podcast. I’ve jumped straight into the deep end with a bit that I know is going to be the most I mean, honestly, I talked about validating your offer inside my free masterclass on how to turn your group programme Evergreen. And I’ve had various DMS from people saying, oh, my gosh, Polly, I did what you said, I validated my offer. And thank you so much. It saved me so much time, I was making money so much sooner. And now I actually have money from Validating my offer to invest in getting my funnel built. Why wasn’t I doing it this way, the first time. Love it. Love it. Love it. Love it. And I love for more of you to be doing that. So secondly, why is your offer not flying? Why are people not buying and this can also, by the way apply to webinars. If you’ve got a webinar and people aren’t signing up to it, chances are it’s not specific enough. Confused minds don’t act and that goes for buying as well. Confused minds also don’t buy.

So whether it’s your webinar, whether it’s your offer, if people aren’t signing up, you know, I think I was having a conversation with this about client last week. And there was conversation around something like how to become more empowered to become more emotionally free. It wasn’t exactly that. But it was something along those lines. And I said, Well, what does empowered mean? What does emotionally free mean? Do people know that they’re emotionally trapped? What does not being emotionally free look like? What does emotionally free look like? How does that actually show up for people in their lives? Because Has anyone ever woken up at 4am? And went, gosh, I wish I was more empowered to be emotionally free? No. And what does empowered mean to you? What does empowered mean? To me? What is empowered mean to Derek down the street, it means something entirely different to all of us. So you know, we want to be using the language that our clients are using that whole waking you up at 4am wishing you had more of that drunken conversation at the end of a kind of night out where you say to your friend, oh god, I just wish my partner will look at me like he used to I’m so fed up with just feeling ignored in my own home. Boom, there’s a title of a webinar. I’m obviously I’m talking slightly in jest here, but the more specific you can be, that’s the kind of messaging where someone’s like, Oh, my God, have you been watching me? Are you in my head? Well, things like how to rekindle your relationship, for example, as a juxtaposition to what I just shared it most people will look at that and go rekindle. Was my relationship ever kindled in the first place? And what does rekindle it? Like? Are you talking from the elements of intimacy? Are you talking intimacy in the context of conversation or physical, there’s so many fill in the blanks going on here, which you won’t know and you won’t feel inspired to do that on behalf of the person who’s behind it. Okay.

So whether it’s a programme or whether it’s a webinar, you want to be specific, so the more specific we can be about who it is for and what motivates them, specifically, the better. So like I say, if you’re ever feeling a bit like, is this clear enough? One, think about what Derek down the street will be thinking even if he’s not your ideal client. Secondly, think about what does this actually look like for people, okay, which is actually going to lead really nicely on to the next part, which is reason number three, that your offer isn’t flying, which is very closely connected with part number two, that these all are somewhat interlinked. And it’s when you lead with features, not benefits, okay? So people don’t buy into the what they buy into the why people will not form emotional attachments to features they will to benefits. What do I mean by this? So I support a lot of people in the wellbeing space, some of them will come along with incredible certifications behind them. They may have worked with Gabor Ma Tei. They may have compassionate inquiry under their belt they may have EFT, nlp hypnosis, all the bells and whistles, trauma informed, I mean all the things and because they were learning that with other people who were equally excited by what it was that they were doing together, they show up with this whole like, I’ve got the armour baby, I’ve got everything people need. I have all this incredible knowledge of course people are gonna want to buy for me, and unfortunately, a lot of people selling these certifications not all of them by the way, and I’m that you’re not pointing fingers at anyone in particular, will also imply that this is the one certification that you need to suddenly become in demand, you are one certification away from being the next in demand thing, this is going to be the thing that takes you to the next level of being in demand, which quite frankly, just isn’t the truth. Because if people don’t see the value in those skills or their knowledge or how it’s gonna benefit them, then it will mean as much to them as you brushed your teeth with Colgate this morning instead of something else, it just won’t mean anything.

Okay, you know, the feature may be that they get a one to one tapping session with you, that will mean nothing to them. If they don’t know what tapping does. It may be that they’re gonna get some silent counselling for you, that will mean nothing to them. If they don’t know what silent counselling does. Now I know this can be sometimes upsetting for people to hear because they’re like, but silent counselling is amazing EFT is amazing that I’m not denying any of that I’m an avid consumer of all, holistic and alternative wellbeing modalities and practices. I love them, I love them, I love them, I love them. But in and of itself, it doesn’t help. And also because one thing I know from my own experience, and I bet you’ve had a similar one as well is that the person behind those features is actually kind of way more important. Because that really highly influences the kind of experience that you have over work with EFT people are hugely joyful, who are really happy and bring a very happy kind of energy to the session you have with them. I have other people who are massively grounded, and I’ve really feel a sense of my self filling up the experience because they keep themselves small, I don’t want to say small, but kind of in a way that gives you the permission to fully show up. There are others that are really funny and scary. And each of those things are all beneficial in their own way. But it’s all an entirely different experience.

And so on that occasion, someone may be signing up for EFT each time, but it’s going to be highly different according to the person who’s behind it. So this is why I say it’s the benefits like what is it that someone’s getting out of doing EFT with you? Is it that they’re learning to love themselves more even then learning to love themselves? What does that mean? What does learning to love yourself allow for you? Is it better career opportunities? Is it healthier relationships? does it benefit you more when you’re really specific about a certain area where you attract people who are always looking for support in the same area? These are all things for you to think about. But people will buy a session with you not because they’re really interested in hypnotherapy, not because they’re really interested in EFT, not because they’re really interested in yoga or whatever modality it is that you support with, they’re signing up because they want to come out the other end feeling better. They’re expecting to get some kind of return on their investment. So what is that return.

And the great thing about having a really strong offer is that the more specific you can be, the more similar the kinds of problems your clients will come to you with. Because you will know these people inside out within a very short period of time. Because you’re not stretching yourself to meet people at so many different levels. You’re constantly meeting similar kinds of problems, which means you have an incredible armoury of things you can support people with moving forward and your messaging will be almost X ray level in terms of getting inside them, because you will know them so well. So this is one of the real big advantages of not just niching, but sub niching. Being really, really clear on who it is you help. Because everything goes on superspeed, the moment you allow yourself to do that, things sell more easily, you give them a better experience, you attract more clients more easily, your messaging becomes enormously on point. It’s really, really powerful. So reason number four, why your offer isn’t selling, and this is turning into a long one. But hey, I feel like it’s valuable. You don’t have the brand authority, you haven’t differentiated yourself from the competition. And actually, this leads really nicely on to five, so I’m going to make it all one, your messaging is missing the mark. So you’re sitting on a goldmine, you have incredible expertise.

But your messaging means that nobody knows about it. I mean, these are almost essentially one and the same thing, right? I think a lot of the time people think about messaging as its own thing. But it is all part of your brand authority is about the brand that you are embodying is. So when I’m talking about brand, not talking about colours, not talking about fonts, you can have the most gorgeous fonts, you can have the best graphic designer working for you on your team or who’ve contracted. But none of that stuff will matter if you aren’t clear on what makes it unique about working with you what your special sauces, about the way that you happen to support people in a way that’s different to others. And as I shared earlier about the EFT examples, there’ll be those who show up and are very sweaty, and that brings out inhibition and some that needed to come out maybe some anger that they haven’t allowed out there. Maybe somebody is really joyful, that helps people leave feeling elevated and just looking at the world differently. And none of those are better than the other. They’re just all bringing their own thing. But when you allow yourself to recognise Yeah, actually, those are the clients I have most fun with. They are the clients who get the very best transformation, and that’s where I feel most in flow. That’s where it feels the easiest. That’s where I feel most Me.

And yeah, if I could have all my clients like that one client who was able to be super sweaty around and she left really looking like she had shared about 10 years of her life, imagine how fun that would be, well, it gets to be that fun. But honestly, think about where you find the most joy serving your clients, and where they’ve seen the highest levels of transformation. And stop playing small trying to reach what everyone wants you to be. And instead, allow yourself to show up in your fullest version. And believe me, again, it just puts all your results in superspeed. So let me summarise the five bits of advice I’ve just given with you. I’ve obviously highlighted the five mistakes, I’m just gonna turn them into the positives. So you’ve got five things to walk away with. So firstly, validate your offer. Secondly, be specific and then be even more specific. Three, lead with benefits, not features. Four be congruent as a brand, embody your brand. And five, don’t be lazy with your messaging, take that brand, and ensure it imbues absolutely everything you do. For one example, if you say that you help people have a simpler business or life or wellbeing. Ensure that you bring simplicity into everything you do it from the website homepage that people land on to the experience people have when they are navigating your social media if you talk about simplicity, but then share essays for social media posts, and no one can actually learn how they work with you. You are not embodying your brand, so ensure that there is concurrency in how you show up. So there we have it. Today you’ve learned the five reasons why your offer isn’t flying. If you are interested in turning your group programme evergreen, you can access that below and that also links to an on demand masterclass where you can learn more about being the one or authority in your space. So there we have it, guys, the five reasons why your offer wasn’t selling and how it is going to sell NOW, Join me next week where I’ll be talking about why your brand should be an afterthought. Controversial, I know Come and join me for it. In the meantime, if you enjoyed this episode, please do review it and share it with your friends. I want to be supporting as many people as possible so the more you share the love, the more you get to do that. Thank you and see you soon