He had referrals. Now he has a process.
Added a sales process for the people he does not know, on top of the referrals he received.
Rick P. is an independent philanthropy consultant who received a lot of referrals. Carla's team helped him with the people he did not know and the cold marketing he was not doing: a process, a system and messaging around them.
He went to Hawaii partly to meet a client he got through that process, and the group decided to work with him within 24 hours. Another client, based in New York City, locked arms with him.
Carla also asks him the questions her prospects ask most: start now or later, can I do it without help, is the cost worth it.
The interview
Carla Cherry with Rick P..
He's a philanthropy guy. ... And he has gone through our program and is in our ongoing program. And I'm so excited to speak with you today about that. Hey, Rick, how you doing?
I'm great. Thanks for having me, Carla.
Thanks for joining. Alright. So I'm gonna ask you straight out of the gate, what was your biggest win working with us?
I think your team helped teach me about process as it relates to sales. That in the past, I'd received a lot of referrals, but you and Samir helped me understand around the idea of, what about all the people you don't know? What about all the cold marketing that you're not doing? And how do you develop a process and a system and messaging around that? And that's really what I've learned in great detail from you and your team.
Okay. Perfect. So I thought we would take a fun exercise because we get the same questions over and over again. So I thought it might be really interesting if I ask you these questions as someone who's gone through our process and who is still in our ongoing, so that you can speak directly to people who are considering our program and have these questions. You ready?
Sounds ready to go.
Alright. Let's go. Okay. So number 1 thing that people ask a lot is, should I start now or should I start later? ... Should I get a couple clients under my belt and then start? Should I try it on my own? ... How would you answer that?
I'd say why wouldn't you wanna start out on the right foot? Why would you wanna start doing things that might be actually bad habits in prospecting or closing new clients? Why wouldn't you wanna do things in a more systematic streamlined way from the outset so you develop good habits? That's what I would say.
And a lot of people, we were, you and I were talking before we hit record, we were, a lot of people have hot leads, 1 or 2 hot leads that they close straight out of gate. It's very common. They'll close 1 or 2, and they think that, oh, this is easy. Because they had a really good reputation. They've amassed a lot of experience. And I typically tell people that first 1 or 2 is pretty easy to close. And sometimes they'll get into a situation where they're like, oh, man. I'm working way too hard. They didn't set up the parameters correctly. So it really feels like a glorified employee, which is its own problem. But those first 1 to 2 are pretty hot. The rest are warm leads.
And I usually identify or define a warm lead as someone who is either you've worked with them before all the way down to a neighbor or a spouse's friend or a friend of your kid's parent, or a parent of your kid's friend.
Anyway, so having the vast variety of warm leads, most people don't know how to close warm leads. They just don't. They didn't have a, they don't have a process. They've never tried it. They think they're just gonna go have a coffee with somebody. And what happens is they get, sometimes get their feelings hurt. What if people don't like me? Or they might even get to a proposal in the inbox, and then they're just sitting there crickets and waiting for that. And so how would you describe going from experiencing that to having a process, learning from us in terms of closing warm leads? Because we have, we close warm leads, and then we also close cold leads. But let's just talk about the warm first.
Let's say even a warm lead needs to be closed in the sense of they're coming to buy, but they're still making a buying decision. Even if they know you and they like you, they still wanna know that they can trust you and that you'd be a good steward or a good person to work with and your company will treat them right. So I think they still need to be closed on what I would say the basics of sales because they wanna know that you're a professional. They don't want to feel like you're desperate for their business either.
That's kind of the irony of it all is that you, they should feel like, oh, I'm working with you, but you're not solely focused on me being your only client or something. Then I feel the pressure of just trying to be a good person and help you out even worse.
Now they're working with you because they feel bad for you. But I think that going back to the structure of what the sales call is and closing them appropriately is good. Maybe you won't have to work as hard because they know you, but I think you still need to have the fundamentals in place to do that.
Yeah. They're missing the frameworks. That's what I tell everybody. It's, yeah, it's a new skill. Most people coming out of corporate have never had to close. They're missing that skill and those frameworks. And once they plug into that soft sell close that we teach in phase 2, I tell people you're not only gonna garner the intel, get out of the vagueness. Get out of vagueness of am I selling the right thing? What am I selling? How do I sell? We're gonna get you out of that vagueness, and it's a soft sell methodology. So on average, our clients are closing at least 1 to 2 minimum in phase 2 with our warm close frameworks. And so, can you speak to that? Once we taught you that process, how did you feel versus trying to close those people on your own?
Well, I think it just gives people the comfort of knowing that they're working with a professional, and you don't have to, you, they, you've sort of set them up, or we set them up so that they feel confident coming into the conversation.
And then it's just a matter of following a lot of those sort of tie downs and things like that, that you're getting people to say, yes. I do need this. And, yes, you have brought up an interesting point. And you're helping them almost close it for themselves.
You're saying, I'm a competent subject matter expert. The question is, do you want my help? Are you ready to work with me? Not am I good enough for you, but more like, are you ready to make this decision?
Exactly. Okay. So let's go on to the next question. People oftentimes wanna know, can I do it without Carla? Like, do I need help?
It kinda goes back to the classic even professional athletes have a coach.
That's right.
So you probably could do it. The question is, are you doing it as efficiently as you should be doing it? Are you going to look back a year from now and say, I probably could have been doing things a little differently if I had just known a different path, but I chose to ignore that path and I went down this other path, I could be maybe closing twice as much business and have a lot less stress in my life if I were doing things more of a proven pathway.
That's right. ... And that's what we set you up for. We play big. Okay. So is the cost worth it?
Absolutely. It's an investment in your, the way you do things as a practitioner, and then you just keep on building on that. So whatever you're spending, you're gonna get that back and then some because it's gonna just keep on building on itself.
And so people trying it on their own, I usually say you're either going to pay with time. And the problem with people leaving corporate is a lot of times they don't have that much time. They have a short runway. They're now going and tapping into savings. And I know it is scary to invest with somebody that you've just met. However, I think it's worse if you risk having to go back to corporate if you really don't want to, if that's soul killing.
And you need to spend money to make money. It's the old adage. You invest in the people who know what they're doing and done this before. And the way I look at it, Carla, is you and your team have a vested interest in your own client's success. You do not wanna have people pay you money for then you walk them through a process that doesn't work. You want everyone to be successful. So it's, you both have skin in the game.
Well, the thing about online businesses is if it didn't work, we wouldn't have a business.
That's it. People always say, well, what about if you're going to leave me? Someone said today, what about if you win the lottery or you get hit by a bus? I said, listen, we are a team of 10 and we lock arms with you. We're in the trenches. We're not going anywhere.
We have to actually worry about our clients getting scared or trying to push pause because they didn't do their homework. You don't worry about us. Our side, we're there. Okay. So people ask you, what is the process?
Well, the process is, first of all, what's your message? And of course understanding, do you have some testimonials?
Do you have people who can speak on your behalf about what you've done? Success stories is one thing I've definitely learned from you is you have to be able to tell what those success stories look like.
The return on investment, the fact that you can do it with a certain speed and efficiency is important. But it's also, it's sort of socializing the potential client to say, it's gonna be okay. I'm a competent person. Let me show you the successes that I've had. This is the process that I go through. So it's funny because I feel like your process is to help us refine our process
That's right.
to determine how to do this not only once in a very effective way, but to do it again and again in a scalable way.
That's right. Yeah. And you, I just wanna share really quickly, you just got back from Hawaii. You have been getting clients. So can you just share a little bit about that? Because people wanna say, people, they always say to me, well, what if it doesn't work? And can I quit if it doesn't work? What would you say to that?
Well, I don't even think you know this, Carla, but one of the reasons I went to Hawaii were because I met with a client who I got through your process.
That's amazing.
I met with them and we did an all day session together, but I am absolutely certain we're going to do a lot of business together. They have quite ambitious goals and we hit it off. I was able to, we were able to work together within 24 hours. That's how quickly this particular group made a decision.
So they were looking to partner with somebody like me. The process worked. We did step 1, and now we're gonna go on to do lots of other things. And not surprisingly, this nonprofit is connected to other nonprofits in the area. So this nonprofit wants to raise money, and, of course, they're gonna wanna help other nonprofits that they work with raise money.
So that's a good example of you just never know where the positive influence is going to stop. ...
And you met him online. You met him through our process.
Yeah. Through, I wouldn't have been able to do it without the process.
Absolutely.
And then there's another one, another gentleman, and he is New York City based, and he locked arms with me. And we're going in, and we're doing incredible things together. ... And so we're setting the parameters and the stage to do that. And we're already in a conversation right now with a donor that he's using my coaching very heavily. ... So it's all, and we're firing on all cylinders here.
And for those who don't know, I think I may, I might have mentioned at the beginning that you are on, in our ongoing process. You're in our on, ongoing program, and I'm so excited for you, and I can't wait to talk to you more about that. Thank you so much for sharing with me today. Definitely gonna let, I'm gonna play this video and let people who have these questions hear from a client of ours, and I really appreciate it. So thanks, Rick.
Thanks for all you do, Carla. I really appreciate it.
You got it.
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