About Lynn Whitbeck: Lynn Whitbeck, the Founder/CEO of Petite2Queen and Future Forward Sales, uses her expertise to guide entrepreneurs and business leaders to successful sales growth. Building on her 30 years of success and experiences as Vice President of Business Development and COO of direct consumer technology start-ups, Lynn is focused on catapulting sales teams and educating individuals daily to superior performance and success. Lynn is committed to lifting business leaders with the ingredients for growth and a profitable sales recipe. She helps transform thinking to the client’s perspective and end sales chaos with a robust strategic plan to harvest the hidden profits. Check out the latest episode of our Conversational Selling podcast to learn more about Lynn.
In this episode, Nancy and Lynn discuss the following:
- Secret ingredients of a profitable sales recipe.
- Building Successful Sales Strategies on Referrals Basis.
- The difference between ghosting and a no-show.
- 7 reasons why salespeople get ghosted.
- How do we bust the ghost?
- Lynn’s story about a huge multimillion-dollar account.
Key Takeaways:
- The primary reason that you get ghosted is that people are busy.
- It’s all about the right message, the right audience, and the right time.
- People are ready to buy at different stages.
- You demonstrate worthy intent by asking the right questions and listening more than you talk.
- They will respond if you demonstrate value and worthy intent without hounding them.
- Getting a handwritten card or package that ties to your product or service will move the conversation forward and build reciprocity.
“A profitable sales recipe has to include the core foundation of sales strategy, which is thinking like your client, truly understanding your ideal client avatar, the client journey, and then the human-to-human relationships and building those relationships with worthy intent. So, when you have that recipe, then you can execute on that and then (part of like the client journey) to build that profit in is, of course, you seed the referral process from the very first conversation and then all the way through your client journey so that when you’ve earned the right you ask for the referral. That shortens your sales cycle, brings you a more profitable business, you create introductions, and you feed your business. And in addition, of course, then you also can sell more to your existing clients.” – LYNN
“It’s really asking for an introduction, not a referral. So, to me, a referral is longer. I would ask for an introduction because that’s not as threatening, and that’s not. That differs from a referral trust you and is passing on this trusted relationship. So that would be a formula that I would apply to.” – LYNN
“There’s a difference between ghosting and a no-show. With a no-show, they don’t come up or show up for the meeting. There are all kinds of extenuating circumstances and reasons around that, but I’m going to focus more on ghosting because it will cover some of that for the no-shows. But the first thing about ghosting is my question, which is rhetorical, but it’s who’s ghosting Because I want to be honest with sales, we sometimes ghost our prospects because we’re not following up. Okay, so that is absolutely critical. So, let’s talk about the reasons that people get ghosted because it is a morale killer for salespeople. And it’s one of the top three things that salespeople list as one of the things that really hurt them in their business.” – LYNN
Connect with Lynn Whitbeck:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynnwhitbeck/
- Petite2Queen: https://petite2queen.com/
Try Our Proven, 3-Step System, Guaranteeing Accountability and Transparency that Drives RESULTS by clicking on this link: https://oneofakindsales.com/call-center-in-a-box/
Connect with Nancy Calabrese:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/oneofakindsales
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/One-Of-A-Kind-Sales-304978633264832/
- Website: https://oneofakindsales.com
- Phone: 908-879-2911
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ncalabrese/
- Email: leads@oneofakindsales.com
Voiceover: You’re listening to The Conversational Selling Podcast with Nancy Calabrese.
Nancy Calabrese: Hi everyone, it’s Nancy Calabrese and it’s time again for Conversational Selling, the podcast where sales leaders and business experts share what’s going on in sales and marketing today and it always starts with the human conversation. Today we’re speaking with Lynn Whitbeck, founder, and CEO of Petite2Queen and Future Forward Sales, where she uses her expertise to guide entrepreneurs and business leaders to successful sales growth. Building on her 30 years of success and experiences as a Vice President of business development and COO of direct consumer technology startups, Lynn is focused on catapulting sales teams and educating individuals daily to superior performance and success. Lynn is committed to lifting business leaders with the ingredients for growth and a profitable sales recipe. Welcome to the show, Lynn. This is gonna be a fun discussion. [1:15]
Lynn Whitbeck: Well, Nancy, thank you so much for having me. And I am really excited to be here with you. And I can’t wait to shed some light on the topic.
Nancy Calabrese: You know what, I’m looking at the word that I just read catapulting. I don’t hear that word that often anymore, do you?
Lynn Whitbeck: Well, I mean, you know, there’s so many different…the English language is so rich, there’s a lot of different words, and sometimes something just sort of comes to you and it’s that taking that leap, but it’s a really boosted leap, right?
Nancy Calabrese: Well, I like that word. I think I’m going to put it in my vocabulary moving forward. So, I guess I’m most intrigued by the statement that you help business leaders with the ingredients for growth and a profitable sales recipe. What is a profitable sales recipe? [2:11]
Lynn Whitbeck: Well, a profitable sales recipe has to include the core foundation of sales strategy, which is thinking like your client, truly understanding your ideal client avatar, the client journey, and then the human-to-human relationships, and building those relationships with worthy intent. So, when you have that recipe, then you can execute on that and then part of like the client journey to build that profit in is of course you seed the referral process from the very first conversation and then all the way through your client journey so that when you’ve earned the right you ask for the referral. That shortens your sales cycle, brings you a more profitable business, creates introductions and raving fans, and feeds your business. And in addition, of course, you can also sell more to your existing clients. [3:10]
Nancy Calabrese: Right.
Lynn Whitbeck: And because once again, that is the easiest sale that you’ll ever have to make. The second is a referral sale. So those are ways, but you must have that foundation in place to really execute that flawlessly.
Nancy Calabrese: You know, you picked up on something, and I’ve debated this with some people, asking for referrals. We here at One of a Kind Sales, my team is cold calling, and they’re not interested, for instance. We always ask for a referral. What are your thoughts on that, and is there a certain strategy around that?
Lynn Whitbeck: Well, of course, there’s a little bit of difference when you’re doing the cold calling because when I look at referrals, I really look at that ear. So, you’ve earned the right, right? And that it’s all about really asking them and then getting the referrals. So, in a cold call situation, you haven’t necessarily earned the right, at least from my perspective. Now it’s a little bit different, do you know of anyone else that we could have an impact on? [4:21]
Nancy Calabrese: Right.
Lynn Whitbeck: So, there are different ways that you could phrase it. That would be how I would approach it because then it’s really asking for an introduction, not a referral. So, to me, a referral is longer. I would ask for an introduction because that’s not as threatening and that’s not, that is different than a referral. trust you and is really passing on this trusted relationship. Whereas an introduction, you know, I mean, hey, Nancy, do you have an introduction that who would you like to be introduced to? How can I help serve you? So that’s different. And then making it a give, who can I introduce you to that would help you? And then the get an introduction for myself. So that would be a formula that I would apply to get the get and I would get an introduction. [5:17]
Nancy Calabrese: I like that. I like that a lot. We’re going to start using that as well. So, before we jumped on together, I know that we had gone back and forth about some topics that would be of interest. And your observation, rightfully so, is very few people on my podcast have ever really spoken about what we hate in sales, ghosting, no shows. And I know that’s something that you want to speak more about. So why does it happen? Why do people just say they’re going to do something and then don’t do it and don’t get back to you?
Lynn Whitbeck: Wow. Well, okay. So first, there’s a difference between ghosting and a no-show. With a no-show, you know, they don’t come up, they don’t show up for the meeting. There are all kinds of extenuating circumstances and reasons around that, but I’m going to focus more on ghosting because it will cover some of that for the no-shows. But the first thing about ghosting is my question, which is rhetorical, but it’s who’s ghosting Because I want to be honest with sales, we sometimes ghost our prospects because we’re not following up. Okay, so that is absolutely critical. So, let’s talk about the reasons that people get ghosted because it is a morale killer for salespeople. And it’s one of the top three things that salespeople list as one of the things that really hurt them in their business. [6:55] So,
Nancy Calabrese: Right.
Lynn Whitbeck: Number one is that people are busy. They are busy, busy, busy. And it is the primary reason that you get ghosted. And I’m just gonna go quickly through this. Number two, as you just haven’t nailed the pain point or the urgency, there hasn’t formed that spark about why they need to make a follow-up or they need to show up, right?
Nancy Calabrese: Right.
Lynn Whitbeck: Number three is to solve it. Really, you haven’t answered. why it matters to them. And you haven’t solved, given them that vision of the so they can, what’s the goal, the dream that they’re trying to achieve. [7:38]
Nancy Calabrese: Right.
Lynn Whitbeck: So, when you haven’t answered that, then it’s easier to brush something off or ignore it, right? Okay, next, maybe you are pushing too hard and you haven’t failed to honor the exploration phase. So, depending on the type of follow-up, the type of ghosting that’s occurred, that could be one of the things that’s happening. All right, there’s number five. I’ve got seven of these, magic seven. So, number five is they don’t know how to say no. Now some people will simply, you know, that fight, flight, you know, freeze, and I call it finesse is number four. Some people just simply don’t wanna deal with it, right?
Nancy Calabrese: Right.
Lynn Whitbeck: So, you need to create a safety net so you can get to the yes or the no because at the end of the day, we want people to be upfront and honest so that we can spend our time more effectively. Number six. So, this is my, you haven’t earned the right. So now here’s the thing. What if this prospect has had a really bad experience, maybe even with your own organization before, you have to respect that recovery time if they’ve had a negative experience. And that it all goes into it. [8:55] So thinking about that is important. And number seven, what did you do?
Nancy Calabrese: All right.
Lynn Whitbeck: You know, come on, you could have unknowingly turned someone off. And so those are my seven reasons, but I’m absolutely the number one is that they’re busy. It’s just they’re busy.
Nancy Calabrese: Yep, yep. And I guess, you know when that does happen to me, I will email them, I’ll call them, and then I’ll email them. And my goal is always just to get at the truth. You know, if this is really not something that you anticipate doing in the near future, it’s okay by giving them permission to say, no, it’s not the right time. And then you just, you still salvage the relationship, right, in the conversation and you follow up with them in the future. [9:45]
Lynn Whitbeck: Yeah, no, absolutely, because it is. It’s all about the right message, the right audience, and the right time. People are ready to buy at different stages, and you have to have that into your strategy so that you can plan for next week, next month, next quarter, and next year.
Nancy Calabrese: Right. And I’m a big believer in getting to the no as soon as possible. So, you can free up and do work and find those yeses that will drive business to your company. So, you talked about the common reasons for ghosting. But how do we bust the ghost? How can we move that sale forward? [10:25]
Lynn Whitbeck: Well, there’re a lot of things that you can do to avoid ghosting. So, the first step is really to know your client: Why? Why does your client want to buy? I mean, what’s in it for them? You know, why does it matter to them? So, they can: what? This is that whole client-thinking exercise. What do they want, need or lack? Why does it matter to them so they can’t now, if you don’t have an understanding the desired destination you’re basically selling them what you have, not what they want, need, or lack. So, that’s the first thing is you really got to go through that client thinking and then reverse engineer their way into your strategy, into your messaging, into how you’re communicating. Okay, so one of the things that you can do when you have that is that then now you can create or leverage absolutely existing content that you can have to help answer that client why to make those reminders, especially if it’s like a no-show, like how do you create the reminders so that it’s like: “Yeah, I gotta show up”. This is important, I need to be there. You throw in a video; you do some other things that remind them about the value of coming maybe to that very first strategy session. [11:41]
Nancy Calabrese: Right.
Lynn Whitbeck: And then you use that so that you can put that into your communication strategy. And so, an easy place… to understand your clients’ thinking. If anyone’s wondering, like, I’m not sure how to this is, so, of course, you can do like a Google search, but one of the things you can do is you can use the platforms also asked or answer the public. And essentially on those tools, you can type in a phrase, maybe whatever you do, maybe, you know, for me, I might type in sales strategy. And then it’s gonna give you the long tail searches that people are actually typing into Google. And now there are going to be some things that don’t even they don’t match. They don’t make sense to you, but you’re going to get some insight into what people are thinking who are searching for what you do. Right. And so it’s a great starting point. And it also helps you to think about, okay, well, what kind of content do I want to create? Do I want to, that’s going to make sense so that I can create that spark and attraction to bring people to me. [12:46]
Nancy Calabrese: Right.
Lynn Whitbeck: And so, um, that’s one of the things that you can do. But another point that I want to make is that to bust the ghost is another thing that you need to do is you need to demonstrate that you have worthy intent. And what I mean by that is that you generally desire to help and serve them.
Nancy Calabrese: Right.
Lynn Whitbeck: And so, when you do that, you demonstrate that by asking the right questions, by listening more than you talk. benefits, that big dream, that goal, what they want. And then, while doing that, that really helps you make that connection when you do have the conversations. And when someone goes to you, you’re gonna go through a process of follow-ups, a follow-up cadence, and that’s one of the things that you use. So, what are their top questions? What are their top 10 pain points? What are their top 10 objections? Those are also another great place to start with creating content that will drive engagement and then mix up the types of methods. Now remember, people are busy, busy, busy. [13:59]
Nancy Calabrese: Right.
Lynn Whitbeck: So, here’s a story. I don’t wanna go over, but back in my corporate days, with a huge multimillion-dollar account, I’d had this great initial meeting, another conversation, and they went, they ghosted me. Then I heard another word, and I was going like, okay, they were really interested. This is a great fit. We can help them. And I stayed on it. I would do my Triumph and Triangle. I would leave a voicemail, really excited about something new, like a case study or something, a new upgrade to the system, whatever, because it was an enterprise sale. [14:31]
Nancy Calabrese: Right.
Lynn Whitbeck: And then, I would send the email with a link. And then three days later, so I did that one, two, and then three days later I would send a message. So like on LinkedIn, like a DM. So it’s wherever your audience hangs out. So, then sometimes I would send a package. Sometimes I would send just a note, you know, but I did this consistently. And, one of my Hail Mary passes is number 12 is I sent a lunch invitation and he accepted.
Nancy Calabrese: Oh!
Lynn Whitbeck: And so I flew in to have this lunch meeting, you know, and it ended up being a three-hour lunch and we moved the sales and he told me flat out. He said, every time you left me a message, every time you sent me an email, you delivered value. I’ve just been so busy dealing with so many things. But then I got the lunch invite and I went, I got to eat. [15:24]
Nancy Calabrese: Ha!
Lynn Whitbeck: And he said, so let’s get this, let’s get this to the next step. And that was what we did. And I did eventually, you know, corporate sales often take 18 months to three years. I did close that, that sale, but it’s that consistency. And my final, step 13 in my Hail Mary, true Hail Mary, is to send an email that, like, I’ve done you a disservice.
Nancy Calabrese: Okay.
Lynn Whitbeck: And I can guarantee you people will respond. If you’ve been demonstrating value and worthy intent, and you haven’t been hounding them, you’ve respected the cadence, they will respond. And if nothing else, they’ll respond with, no, no, no, I’ve just been so busy, and… but you can at least get them to the next part of the conversation. Like, should I follow up in three months? Should I follow up in six months? [16:12]
Nancy Calabrese: Great.
Lynn Whitbeck: Would you like, is there another way that I can serve you? Would you like some introductions? Who do I know that could be of service to you?
Nancy Calabrese: Yeah, and I guess what I’m taking away from what you’ve done, it’s all based on activity, right? To mix it up and to live where your people live and communicate through various channels. Is that the essence of it?
Lynn Whitbeck: Absolutely. And I want to, one final point is I want everyone to remember their friend, the post office person, or the, the Brown suited UPS driver because it’s so unusual these days to get an actual handwritten note or a package that’s hand addressed. Now, obviously, if you’re using UPS or some of the other things, but the thing is, is people are going to, it’s going to get to their desk and they’re going to open it if you’re dealing B2B. with a larger business, they probably still have a fax machine. That is also a very unique way to get something on their desk. And literally, they’re going to run through the building going, Oh my God, I got a fax today. [17:16]
Nancy Calabrese: Wow. Wow.
Lynn Whitbeck: But trust me, it’s going to get to their desk.
Nancy Calabrese: They pay attention, it’s different.
Lynn Whitbeck: And so it’s like, it gets their attention and everybody, you know, they, people love getting a card, a handwritten card or note or a package. Um, that makes sense. That ties to your product or service that will move the conversation forward and builds the reciprocity so they’re gonna respond.
Nancy Calabrese: Wow, you have some really amazing tips and tricks. And I can’t believe we’re almost up with time. So, we’ll have to do this again. But what is the one takeaway you want to leave the audience with?
Lynn Whitbeck: If someone’s ghosting you, it’s probably because they’re busy. And that means that you need to do your job as a sales professional and start following up because that is where you close your sales. You build a relationship, you’re establishing what it’s gonna be like to work with you, that you’re gonna be there, that you’re gonna deliver value. And it’s gonna build that trust and the like known trust, and you will be able to move your relationship forward and eventually the sales floor. [18:26]
Nancy Calabrese: Yep, professional persistence, we say here.
Lynn Whitbeck: Yes.
Nancy Calabrese: The key is not to harass them, and the no is just a not now, and keep moving forward, right?
Lynn Whitbeck: Absolutely.
Nancy Calabrese: Yeah, Lynn, you were fabulous. And I want to thank you genuinely from One of a Kind Sales and everybody out there for sharing your expertise. How can my people find you?
Lynn Whitbeck: Well, you can find me at Petite2Queen. That’s the digit two, Petite2Queen. I’m also the only Lynn Whitbeck on LinkedIn. So, two super simple ways to find me. [19:09]
Nancy Calabrese: Okay, and Whitbeck is spelled W-H-I-T-B-E-C-K, correct?
Lynn Whitbeck: That’s correct.
Nancy Calabrese: All right, well everyone, go out there, use some of Lynn’s pointers, get in touch with her, and make it a great sales day. [19:23]
