Caitlin Bacher:
Hey there, you’re listening to Scale with Success®: The Podcast Built for Course Creators™. And in today’s episode, we’re talking about a major challenge you may be experiencing in your online course business, unpredictable sales. If it seems like the only people who invest in your courses are those who have been in your audience forever, and even though sales come in unpredictable waves, that could be an indicator that you have a bigger problem going on in your business. Today, we’re diving deeper into why this might be happening in your business right now and the actions you can take to overcome this challenge, so you can enroll more students regularly.
Caitlin Bacher:
So if you feel like you are struggling with unpredictable sales, then keep listening because we have a lot to talk about, so stay tuned. My name is Caitlin Bacher, founder and CEO of Scale with Success®, and I’m on a mission to help course creators all over the world grow their business in a way that is profitable and scalable. Together with my co-host and director of marketing, Karie Price, we are sharing revealing conversations about what it really takes to scale an online course business to millions of dollars per year. Join us here to discover the tough decisions we’ve had to make, the biggest failures we’ve had to bounce back from, and the learnings that emerged every step of the way.
Caitlin Bacher:
We are so grateful that we have the chance to share it all with you right here on Scale with Success®: The Podcast Built for Course Creators™. Let’s get started. Today, we are talking about what it really takes to build a highly effective automated sales process that converts 24/7, bringing you the revenue predictability that you need in order to scale. Here’s how to know if your current sales process is standing in the way of scaling your business. One of the big things that our clients come to us with is this problem of being stuck in a never ending live launching cycle. If the only way that you are able to generate new revenue for your business is to launch over, and over, and over again, that is a problem.
Caitlin Bacher:
Now I want to mention something because I always hear this argument. I hear things like, “Well, what about Apple? What about the iPod, or whatever? They do big launches.” Yeah, they do. They launch it, but then they sell it continuously, day after day, until they have something else to launch. And so it really is possible to get yourself out of this thinking that so many course creators have that the only way that they’re able to build a million dollar business is through launching. I am here to tell you that is not true. It actually wasn’t until I stopped launching that I was able to scale my business to the first million dollars.
Karie Price:
Yeah, I think it’s a great example that you shared with Apple and that people use things like that as an example of why launching is good, but remember they’re launching new products. We just talked about this in episode 35 and probably episode 34 too. I feel like we talk about this a lot. But that always creating new products or new courses, that’s a lot of effort itself and you’re selling back into your same audience. That’s why Apple has to do big launches and launch new products all the time, because they’re trying to keep serving that small group, well, not a small group, but the same group of people. You don’t have to do that.
Caitlin Bacher:
Yeah. Especially if you’re looking to build a million dollar business, you do not need to be selling more than one product. You can absolutely do that. Now if you’re looking to build a billion dollar business, that’s a little different and obviously, you would get there in stages. But there’s so much involved even in just selling one product, in terms of the marketing of that product, the delivery of that product, the optimizing of that product, all those things. It’s really important that if you have a goal in mind, if you’re really striving and trying to get to that first million in online course sales, that you are making it as simple as possible.
Caitlin Bacher:
And so for those of you that are thinking to yourself the only way that I’m able to make this work is through live launching. I’m here to tell you today that that is not the case. There is a better way.
Karie Price:
And live launching, talk about time intensive and like energies zapping. It’s these big spurts of such intense energy and you’re putting all the hope on that that’s going to convert for you. That’s just a lot of energy expenditure for potentially not a consistent payoff.
Caitlin Bacher:
A hundred percent. One of the other symptoms that I see in online course creators, who are really struggling with their sales process is that they’re sending consistent traffic to their automated webinar, but it’s not converting. Or maybe they feel like they have a webinar and they’re able to do it live and make sales, but then when they switch over to automate it, all of a sudden, their revenue starts to plummet. And what that means is not that you have to keep launching forever. It just means that you need to fine tune that automated sales mechanism.
Caitlin Bacher:
Selling live and selling in a way that’s automated are two very different things. If you have been successful at live launching and you’re feeling frustrated because you’re having a hard time automating those sales, don’t worry. That’s totally normal. The reality is that you are likely applying a lot of principles from live launching into your automated process and that’s actually why it’s not working.
Karie Price:
I think people think that those same strategies are really easily portable and I get it. Conceptually, that makes sense. When I’m live launching, I warm people up, I invite them to a webinar, I sell them on the webinar, and there’s a followup sequence. Well, isn’t it the exact same thing in an automated funnel? And conceptually that’s true but the way that you have to engage with the audience to make each of those pieces work is very different.
Caitlin Bacher:
Yes. It’s so different.
Karie Price:
You talk about, Caitlin, you’re getting plenty of people to your automated sales mechanism and it’s not converting. So to me, that’s one of those things as an indicator, you’re starting to resolve your lead generation problem. We talked about that in episode 35, like how to know if you’re not getting enough leads in. Well now you’ve got that working, but they’re not converting. That’s how you know, it’s one indicator that your sales mechanism is now the next thing that you’ve got to work on.
Caitlin Bacher:
For sure. Let’s talk about some common mistakes to avoid when it comes to really improving your sales process so that you are able to enroll more students. One of the things that I highly encourage you to do is to stop relying exclusively on live launching methods to sell your course. So if you love live launching, then by all means continue. If you were all about the launch life, please continue, but if you are looking for a more predictable way to scale your business, a way that you have a lot more control of, you need to figure out a way to really automate that sales process without having to launch all the time.
Caitlin Bacher:
This is one of those things that it’s like – there’s no avoiding it. There’s no bandaid. There’s no getting around it. Just like we always say, it’s better to just confront those problems head on and determine the best path forward, as opposed to trying to circumvent these problems by saying like, “Oh, well, that sounds hard. I tried it once, but it didn’t work, so I’m just going to go back to live launching.” I totally get that you may have previously not had the best results with trying to automate that sales process, but the reality is that automated sales works for literally anyone.
Caitlin Bacher:
So if they haven’t worked for you, it’s probably something in the way that you had it set up.
Karie Price:
Yeah, which means that’s a problem that’s easily fixable though, too, right? Like we have a system to help you do that. And I love hearing the stories from our clients of, “Oh, I made my first sale in my sleep,” or “I made my first deal when I was at the beach with my kids.” That’s what this gives you is you get that predictable income like you talked about, but without that super intensive time effort where you’re live launching and you’re like, “Sorry, family. I’m out for a couple of weeks. I got to focus.” Instead, you can have the benefits of getting those sales all the time while you’re enjoying your life.
Caitlin Bacher:
Yeah. One of the big things that I see people really struggle with when it comes to creating that sales process, that automated sales process for yourself so that you can enjoy life so that you don’t feel like your business is controlling you, you feel like you are controlling your business – is that it’s really important that we stop trying to force people to buy before they’re ready. So a profitable, automated sales process that enrolls people into your course, 24/7 is not going to work if you don’t understand and respect the readiness of your audience.
Caitlin Bacher:
And so your ability to warm up people quickly relies on the quality of your content. Not more ability to bully, shame, or force people into buying.
Karie Price:
Yeah, definitely. Everyone’s heard the analogy of it’s like dating. How would you respond to somebody walking up to you the first time you meet them and they ask you to marry them? Well, of course, you wouldn’t do that. You’ve got to get to know the person. So you want to make sure that you’re addressing all the things that they need to hear so that they do know you by the time that you get to the ask. But if I can, let me just say, I also want to be careful that people don’t think the opposite of that. They think that, “My audience takes months of warmup before I can ask them to buy,” because that’s not true either.
Caitlin Bacher:
Yeah. That’s so true. People really need to stop telling themselves that your audience needs weeks, months, years of warmup in order to feel like they’re ready to buy. What you really need is an automated sales process that ensures that the right people are seeing your offer at the right time. If the right people are seeing the right content at the right time, they’re going to buy whether they have known you for an hour, or a day, they’re going to be excited to, to get the results that your course is promising them.
Karie Price:
And that’s just understanding buyer psychology, and human nature. We talk a lot about this. We really are firm believers in behavior based automation. We want content to get into the hands of the right people at the right time and you can totally control that with automation. It can feel personal because I know that’s a concern that a lot of people have.
Caitlin Bacher:
That’s true. A lot of people associate automation with something that’s insensitive or impersonal. And one of the really amazing things that we have found in using behavior based automation, is that it actually enables us to develop a stronger connection with each individual audience member because they’re consuming. And it enables them to consume content when they’re ready to take it in.
Karie Price:
Yes. I want to make sure having behavior-based automation, having this automated system that does that does not mean it’s complicated. So again, it’s about simplicity. It’s about knowing just the right thing at the right time, but it’s not about automating a bunch of upsells, and down sells, and all this crazy logic, trying to anticipate things. You can do it in a really simplified and elegant way.
Caitlin Bacher:
Yeah. Can you eventually start to do all those things? Yes, you definitely can, but you don’t need all of those complicated things in order to scale your online course to a million dollars. The only way that those other things are going to work is if you first have really nailed the core of your funnel. You really have this like simple, like you said, elegant sales process that is proven to work again and again, and able to really convert people, who could really benefit from what it is that you’re selling, and get them the results that they’ve been really craving for a long time.
Caitlin Bacher:
They haven’t been able to find you, and once they’re able to do that, we want them to be able to get in there and get started.
Karie Price:
Yeah, definitely. I think some people might feel things have to be more complicated than they are because they just don’t know. Sales might feel new, and different and not your strong point so you feel like, “Oh, it must be complicated because I haven’t figured it out yet.” But by really simplifying and using a strategy that works, it’s not only easier for you, but it’s actually easier for your prospect. You want it to be a clear and simple path for them. You don’t want them to feel overwhelmed or confused and so simple is better.
Caitlin Bacher:
My gosh, that’s true. So I buy a lot of things on the internet, especially nowadays. Sometimes I’ll click buy and then all of a sudden 10 bazillion boxes and options come out of nowhere and I’m like what is going on?
Karie Price:
And how many times are you like, “Do I just want to change my mind? I just want to buy the thing.”
Caitlin Bacher:
I know. I’m like go back, go back, it’s not working.
Karie Price:
Yeah, totally.
Caitlin Bacher:
It’s totally true. One of the things that we’re really passionate about here at Scale with Success is that we really want the entire sales process to be set up in a way for you so that your business is always making money so that you’re able to, whether you’re chaperoning a field trip with your kid, or maybe you’re catching up on real Housewives of Beverly Hills, whatever it is that you’re doing, that you have built something solid. That it’s not a fluke, that your business is not just a series of promotions, it’s real and it’s strong.
Karie Price:
That ongoing predictability, that just makes you a more confident business owner because you just know this works. It reinforces every time those sales comes in, okay, the process is working. There’s more people, I’m out there, I’m reaching them, I’m able to serve them, share my knowledge with them, which is why a lot of people start an online course business. We know we can have a bigger impact. We know we can solve a problem for somebody, and having that come in predictably and getting the emotional ups and downs out that come with launching, just opens the doors for so many more things that you can be thinking of doing in your business and the impact that you want to make.
Caitlin Bacher:
Right. If you think about it, how can you scale? How can you plan when to hire your next team member and all of these things, if everything is up and down, if you have no way of knowing how much income you’re going to be generating next month, next quarter, or even next year? One of the things that we really help our clients do to the point where sometimes they’re like, “Okay, I get it. I know exactly what you’re going to tell me to do.” It’s really important that you track your metrics and that you’re really making database decisions. Some of our clients in Stage II, they’re able to accurately predict exactly how much money down to the dollar practically of how much money they’re going to be making next week, next month, next quarter.
Caitlin Bacher:
And what that does for them is it frees them up to then have that bigger vision for their business, and to think about what they want to do next, and where they want to go, and how they can work towards improving the products. And they’re able to do that because there is that predictability in their business and they worked very hard in order to get that predictability.
Karie Price:
Yeah. I love what you said there, how it really does free them up for the next idea, the next area that they want to put their focus and attention on. Because without that predictability, then you’re always just worrying about the money and covering your expenses, and “Oh, I want to do this, but I need to hire staff to do that.” And man, the confidence that comes with that, that’s so freeing.
Caitlin Bacher:
Yeah, totally. So today we talked a lot about automating your sales process, but I love to know your biggest challenge when it comes to scaling your online course business. So send me a DM on Instagram or join my free Facebook group and let me know. See you soon. Are you ready to scale your online course business so you can impact the lives of more people and create real change in the world? Join us inside our signature program, Scale with Success®, where you’ll get the content, coaching, and community you need to successfully implement our proven process to help you scale, so you can start reaping the rewards of running a highly profitable online course business.
Caitlin Bacher:
Scale with Success® is a multi-year group coaching experience built for online course creators who are ready to scale their business to and through $1 million with certainty as a result of having the right support at the right time. What are you waiting for? Click over to scalewithsuccess.com and apply now.
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