SFR 48: Guarding Your Core Offer..

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The curse and blessing of an entrepreneur is SO much opportunity. Remember your basics though...

Hey, what's going on everyone? This is Steve Larsen and you're listening to Sales Funnel Radio.

Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio. Where you'll learn marketing strategies to grow your online business using today's best internet sales funnels. And now, here's your host, Steve Larsen.

You know it's funny when I record these now, after I do my little intro and I put my intro music in there, I tend to in my mind go, "DeeneeneeneeDee LeDenDenDeDenLenee De". And I start singing along with the actual, even though I haven't even put it in yet. It's just what's in my head.

Hey guys, hopefully the mic quality is okay here for you. I just barely got a boom mic which is crazy. I got my desk set up in my home office. I've got whiteboards all over the place. I finally have ... when I was growing up, I had, uhm, and I'm trying to bring this back ... but when I was growing up, anytime, there was like a quote or something inspiring, or something like cool nugget, even in high school I did this, I would write it down on a piece of paper and I would thumbtack it to the wall.

And I did this for a really, really long time. And there would be anything from business quotes to religious stuff to just inspirational things. It was all about like success-driven quotes, you know, from really cool successful people.

And my wall was littered with it, almost to the point where there was no gaps. There were some gaps, but it was so, so close, you barely could see any wall. And I kind of set up my home office up the same way a little bit. I've got two bookshelves. I'm still finding all the books in our boxes as we've been moving in this new house which has been awesome.

I've got the sweet desk which is super cool.

I've got whiteboards, like I said, all over the place. But what I did is I left this huge area in front of me and to the sides of me, totally open, because I really want to bring back my quotes on the wall.

I enjoy doing that a lot. And it was a cool because I kept things top of mine. Like one of them I've got right here. I think I've talked about this one on the podcast, but this is a cool one, it's from a book called, How The World Sees Me.

Number one, "The world doesn't change for people who sort of care." Number two, You don't know learn how to be fascinating. You unlearn boring. You don't know what I mean. We're already fascinating by, by," ... Anyway, just tons of quotes all over the place.

"To become successful don't change who you are, become more of who you are." "And highlight your differences," ... and things like that.

I put stuff like that all over my walls, and I love it. So, I've got a ton of room here. I'm super excited to jump out and keep filling my walls all over the place.

What's kind of weird for me right now is usually I'm podcasting either into my phone or into my mic or whatever it is, and right now I'm look at a wall. So I'm going to have to get used to this.

You guys, I want to say a cool little success story out here. So when this podcast first started, I was super nervous. You guys may not believe that, but I was actually legitimately scared. I was nervous to get out there and put my voice out there.

I was like, "Do I know enough?"

"Have I done enough things in my life?"

Is anyone actually going to listen to this thing?" And huge fears, and I remember, I think I was kind of distracting myself, preparing lots of podcasts, or putting things together, or thinking that the logo was super important, or thinking ... you know what I mean?

And I was distracting myself.

I finally got to this point where I was, "Okay, I got to launch this thing, right. All right, I just got to do this."

And I launched it. And when I first launched the podcast, there was, I don't know, maybe like fifty people who saw the first episode. And I was emailing the list that I had at the time. It wasn't small, but it was a new channel.

And it was just fifty people that saw the first one, and then there was like eleven hundred downloads the first month. I was like, "Cool!" Eleven hundred downloads the first month of the podcast, I was like, that's really awesome.

Second month I think was fourteen hundred. Third month I think broke two thousand. And it kind of just started scaling. Guys, there has been four thousand episodes, I just looked at the stats, four thousand downloads in the last two days. Okay. This podcast is getting ranked like crazy, and I just wanted to thank you guys for being listeners. I appreciate it.

I even met a handful of you guys again today. Pretty much every day, either a listener is reaching out, or I'm getting to meet you, or whatever it is. I just wanted to thank you guys. I think it's really really cool. I had no idea that it would get this big.

As a has-been, you know respectively, I was through this way bigger podcast than that, but it's just really fun to see that and hear stories of people saying, "I did what you said on the podcast and it's been so freaking cool!" "And I went out there and I did it and it changed my life.".

Like those stories, gosh, it just gets me so excited. I know that a lot of people probably think that I'm crazy what I'm doing here, but whatever, I don't care.

My whole goal this podcast is to share with you cool Sales Funnel stories, and strategies and tactics, and little tips and tricks, and things like that. The things that I'm doing is as I move down my Sales Funnel path as well. And I'm just really thankful for you guys.

Anyways, didn't mean to take five minutes on that, but I just wanted to say that. So, hey, I just had a pretty cool experience. So I began, you guys know I got my start with the online business, doing door-to-door sales, which actually might surprise a lot of you.

As you guys know, for those of you, who I guess, haven't heard that story. Go back and listen to it. If you just start from the beginning I kind of tell that story. But I started noticing, right, that there were these people who are already planning on spending money on pest control, that's what I was selling door-to-door, and I did that for two summers.

First was security, and then I did pest control after that. There were people who already wanted it, right. They were calling billboards. They were calling ads. They were seeking for information.

And I was out there and I trying to convince people who were not planning on not spending money to try and spend money. And I was like, oh my gosh, this is so much harder, right.

So, I laughed a little bit because, what was it, like two days ago, you know we've been doing a whole bunch of yard work, we've been getting the house set up, it's been a whole lot of fun, we're totally playing house, it's been awesome. You know we were in an apartment for five and a half years, and now we're finally getting to move into this house, and it's been great.

But, there was a ring on our doorbell. I looked through the little viewfinder that we have there, which is supercool to have that. I don't know how that thing works. It's like a picture. Anyway, I was looking out there and this guy was standing off probably about six or seven paces out. And he had his head down. He had a hat on. And he was turned sideways a little bit. He looked like he was looking at some little pamphlet. And there was something on his phone, or something like that.

And right off the bat, I knew exactly what this guy was doing because that was my move. I did that all the time. I opened the door and he turned around and he goes, "Hey, just wanted you to know we're taking care of your neighbors, and just wanted to see if you guys wanted to, you know, something like half off over here."

And like no other explanation...

I was like, my gosh, that was my pitch. Like the guy's using my pitch. Not that I wrote it, but I was like, he's doing the exact same pitch. And I could not keep the stupid smile off my face. I know it threw him off a little bit because my wife looked around the corner, and she went back and she's just smiling all goofy big. And my sister was still living with us for a little bit of the time there, and she smiled and was walking off.

And he's like, he didn't say anything, but his face said everything, you know, he's like, what the heck is going on here? And I couldn't keep the stupid smile, I was like, yeah okay.

I was trying to play hard. But, I love being sold and I like buying stuff, because I love the sales process. You know, like please continue to bring me through the sales process because it's just fun to have that.

So, I played with him a little bit, actually quite a bit. And I was asking him questions, and he got me out of the house, which is what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to change the selling environment. You know think about that with an online term.

It's what I always tell people, if you can, when you're selling high ticket stuff, like call on the phone 'cause it changes the selling environment. People aren't hiding behind the computers. And he's changing the selling environment, and I was walking around the house, and he's pointing stuff out. And I was okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like I knew the pitch really well.

I was the number two first year seller for a little while at the company I was working at. And it was awesome. I was killing it. I was making great money as a door-to-door sales guy.

But I mean he was doing all the tricks, like turning sideways, you know, and he would ... I'd say, "no I don't want, I don't want, no thanks." In truth, I totally wanted it. I just wanted to say no to him as many times as I could to see what he would say. Because we have bugs all over the place. Like we got a big yard now. We've got this awesome waterfall in our backyard.

We've got a pretty nice house. Especially for a first house, it's not normal. And I'm aware of that. I feel super blessed and very thankful for that. I've got a few products that are selling really really well. And anyway, whatever.

But we got a big house, you know for a first house, it's pretty big. We've got several rooms that are just empty here still and we've seen bugs, you know there's trees and stuff all over the place, and it's awesome. And we really really liked it.

And it's been fun to be screaming with my little girls, my two little ones, playing around and running around with them, and know that no one's below us or above us, you know, in apartment life.

But anyway, now he's all over the place. And I kept saying no, and then he would like sidestep it and hit me with this other side thing. And I was like, "Is this your first year doing this?" He's like, "Oh, you know, yeah I'm not that good." And I was like, "Okay well what if I wanted to call you, I don't know." So he handed me this card, and I was like "Cool, which number is yours." He's like, "Call that second one that top one's my manager."

And in my mind I was like, this guy is totally the manager and this is not his first year. Like he is doing this so well, he clearly is very good.

And if you sell like one or two things a day in pest control, like you're killing it. You're going to make a huge amount of money by the end of the summer. You know the guys that make three or four sales a day, that's more money than people make in a year, and they do that in a summer, which is why it's so appealing, you know what I mean.

Anyways, so I called him out on it, I was like "Dude, come one." And I was like, "Dude. Come on." I sold pest control, and I was pretty good at it. And this is not your first year. And he goes, "No.". And I go, you are the manager aren't you, and he goes, "Yeah.". And I start calling him out on his bluffs.

I was like, "Dude, I love that objection I gave you and you sidestepped it."

And it was cool because he and I got to sit back, and we started dissecting kind of the way he pitched me. And I was like, "Dude, what I would do, ask more questions when I come out. You hit me so hard. If I didn't know you were a pest control guy already, it was a huge turnoff.

And he's like, "I know, I know it's just you opened the door and all of you guys were smiling at me so cheesy, I didn't know what was going on." I was like, "Oh it's 'cause pest control is kind of what got me started in my current industry, and I've got a soft spot for door-to-door salesman."

I love buying stuff...

I was like, "Dude, I'm going to tell you right now, we need pest control. I'm going to buy it from you. But, I wanted to work you with the sale. I wanted to see what was going on.

And we had a really funny conversation.

And the whole time what he was doing, and what your told to do, and what we learn to do with door-to-door sales, and you should do this with your own sales too, by the way. In fact, I'm thinking about all the cool ways that I can do this. And it's been on my mind ever since.

But what happens is, okay so I bring up an objection, "Oh, I need to talk to my spouse.", or "Oh, is this safe for my kids?". And the first thing you do is you got to agree with them. Because if you come out and you say, no no no, you don't need to talk to your spouse. You know, what does that do, it turns them off. What I'm trying to tell you guys, is think of this in terms of an online sales funnel, okay.

Before I came out and said, oh don't worry about it, like your kids are totally safe. But I didn't really give any stats. Or I could read your body language and see that you really weren't quite buying what I was saying. You know what I mean? You've to be able to give a logical reason for why you're right. But also agreeing with them, it's kind of funny.

Even if you disagree with them, the first thing you do is say, "Okay, yeah, I totally get that. That makes sense." You know, "Hey Steven you look like an idiot, and you're head is a knockoff egg-shaped version of Adam Sandler.", which is kind of his head, and you can go, "Oh, yeah. No, totally I get it, you know, but really it's shaped more like Kevin Costner."

You know whatever it is...

But you could totally disagree with them, the first thing we do, though, is you agree with them, and then spinoff and show how you're right, with stories. And that's how he's trying to sell me, he's trying to sell me using stories the whole way through. And every single time he'd bring it back to this core offer. Well cool, if I could just get the technician the schedule anyways then I can get out of your hair.

It's just while we're here in the neighborhood, 'cause we're spraying your neighbors. Which is true.

But, he's always bringing back to the core offer, every single time, every objection, everything was back to getting this thing on schedule. When can I schedule, when can I schedule, and he's pushing back, back, back, back.

And you guys can probably start to see the point I'm trying to make here. There's a really good book called Good to Grade.  And I think it was in this book. And if it's not I'm so sorry the principle is true and I just can't remember the name of the book.

But I think it was comparing a business to like a hotdog stand. Gosh, I'm so sorry if this is not the right book. It's sounding wrong as it's coming out of my mouth. But just here's the principle okay.

There's a book and it's comparing business to kind of like a hotdog stand. And the point was made, you have a hotdog stand business, meaning, you're not in the business of selling relish. Can you have a hotdog stand business without relish? Yes you can.

Can you have it technically without ketchup or mustard or even a bun? Yes you can. Could you have a hotdog stand business without a hotdog. No. Right?

And the main point that the book was trying to make is you've got to know what your core offer is, and continually push on it over and over and over again. And what the temptation is for a lot of us, is we go build sales funnels, whether offline or online, is that we will go and we will get too obsessed about the relish.

And we will think that we cannot launch a hotdog business until we have the relish, until we have the mustard, until we have the ketchup and buns, and all the options, and all the fixings, and we've got whatever else random stuff you've got, chili sauce, cheese, you got chips, and those are good things to have, but it's not your business.

Does that make sense?...

And so when you're going through, and I know a lot of you guys who are listening to this podcast right now 'cause I've met a lot of you, you're trying to figure what your core business actually is. You're trying to figure out what do I sell? What is my actual value proposition to the word. And what you'll notice. And I want to give piece of feedback on that.

You got to keep it simple...

When you first start out, me, Steven Larson, I am very good at building sales funnels. I know click funnels like the back of my hand. I've literally have dreamt the ClickFunnels editor. I've brainstormed headlines in my sleep.

But I spent so much time in it. I've built so many sales funnel even before I worked for ClickFunnels. I was flat out obsessed with it. Okay, that is my core thing.

When I was speaking at Adcon a few days ago some of the people were like why don't you go out there and you start actually selling, you know get facebook ads going. It's like, "Because I'm on my core offer. I am standing on my peak. I do not want to come off my peak and learn another peak, facebook ads."

Does that make sense. And some of you guys you're getting out there and you're saying, "I've got to learn this. I've got to learn this."

And that might be true, but if it's taking you away from your core offer, then your screwing yourself. All right? You cannot do that. You cannot have the hotdog business without the hotdog. So, learn what the hotdog of your business is. Does that make sense. Learn what exactly it is that you actually offer. And there's some tips for that.

I remember for years I kept thinking for years, "Man, what am I good at?" What am I good at?" Little did I know, or notice at the time, that every single one of the businesses that I was trying and launching had to do with the internet. Little did I know that every single of them had to do with B to B or B to C sales. That's true for every business. But I was hardcore focusing on the sales part itself.

And little that I'd know that all the pieces that I was going through, have literally, they've all lynch=pinned to this one core offer, sales funnels, particularly online. Does that make sense?

I remember when I sat back and I started thinking about that, I was like "Holy crap, I should probably learn some online stuff." You know this is probably like four years ago. I should probably learn some online stuff, because every business that I've been trying up until now is always been online. Always. Every time, without fail. And I was like, "Okay, cool."

And so I stopped doing door-to-door real estate like I was doing, but I stopped doing door-to-door sales in pest control. It's not that it didn't help me, 'cause it helped me like crazy. It's just that I needed to focus on my core offer, right?

That's why I went and hired somebody to do some custom coding. I probably could have learned it on my own. I know a little code on my own. But it's not my peak.

So for you to figure out your core offer. And figure out what the thing is that your actually going to go out and sell. I want you to start thinking about some questions, this is what taught me, I think my dad might have taught me this.

I can't remember...

But he was saying, "Look Steven what is it that you think about, when you have nothing to think about." Does that make sense? I think Tony Robbins calls this like N.E.T. time, no extra time, right, like when you're driving in the car. When you have nothing that your supposed to be thinking about. Like, I was in the car when I was thinking through these questions and deeply you guys I was asking myself these questions every single day many times a day.

Like, "What am I good at? "What am I good at?"...

You know, and you've probably honestly felt that the same. Am I right? You've probably have. And what I started doing just started saying, "Okay, what do I think about when I have nothing that I'm supposed to be thinking about?". And where does my mind randomly play. What's the mental playground that I'm always in?". Sales funnels. Right. It was always online. And I'm like, "Okay cool."

And I took a step forward into the online world. And I was like "Okay, what am I still thinking about, it's like okay, it's like online process, e-commerce mixed with info products. Okay cool, and I took a step forward, and I was like, okay now let me niche down again, now what is it that I'm really, now that I've learned like crazy ..."

And every single time I took a step forward was like this hardcore learning period, where I'd go out and say, "Okay, I've got to learn more about x, y, and z.

I've got to know more about like ... one of the first successful phones I ever built was this MLM funnel. It still makes a grand a week, it's nuts. It's been doing that for a long time which is awesome.

Nice little cash flow business sitting on the side there like that. But, anyway, and I went through these huge learning periods, and I stopped learning on purpose, so that I could go execute. Otherwise, there was too much input, and I was not having any output. Does that make sense?

So, it was cool because I was listening to this sales guy, this door-to-door guy, and he was saying like, "Hey.", he'd overcome every objection. Overcome. Overcome. And he's always bringing it back to the core offer. I was like, "Dude you're doing it right, man. I know that you're not a noob.

You're not new at this stuff. You're not brand spanking new. I was like, you're the manager aren't you? And he goes, yeah. And I was like, come on dude.

Anyway, I totally bought from him and there going to come spray our house tomorrow. Or two days from now. There was a massive spider crawling after my three year old today. And she keeps thinking there are spiders all over and keeps screaming when there's nothing on her. And I feel bad. Hope it doesn't, probably develop a little complex or something, but ...

Anyways, that's my main point guys. I want you to know that you got to figure out what your core offer is. And realize where the relish in your head is. Where's the ketchup and the mustard and the buns? Where is that extra stuff that is nice to have, but is not but necessary parts.

If you can do that, and focus, and learn to say no. That's amazing. I remember, I think it was Seth Godin, yes one of his books called The Dip. I love that book. But in there he talks about how most people who are successful in life what they've done is actually learned how to say no, really, really, really well.

They have learned how to say yes to the right things...

And they have learned how to say no to like 99% of everything else. And it's hard, it's very hard.

I get offered deals like crazy. I mean there's so many places I can take this talent and I'm really excited for and that can be really, really cool. But, I have chosen to plant my feet with ClickFunnels in the time being. To stay here, this high-pressure, high-intensity learning area with ClickFunnels, and it's fun to do projects with Russell, and scratching an itch that I've had for a long time to go making info products which is awesome.

And learn with just the brilliance of Russell right next to me. And it's so cool. Just today we had this cool session. I love it when he comes over. You know my desk is in the same room as his literally. And he'll walk over, and he did that today two times, and he was showing me these maps and these different diagrams. I can't tell you what was on there, it's totally a secret, but just stay tuned and keep a close eye on what ClickFunnels is doing. But it's just cool to have that high-pressure hand right next to me the whole time.

There's one other point I wanted to make with this. It said that every time you add a single product, even just one more skew to your product line, right, one more info product, one more physical product, one more anything, you add 12x the complexity, in the amount of customer service, in the amount of time when you add the fulfillment in, when you add all, like just to support that product is 12x.

And you think about all the time it takes for you to jump from thing, to thing, to thing, to thing. All of the place thinking, no this is the new [inaudible 00:22:26], no this is what's going to make money, no this is what's gonna, and you jump all over the place. That's actually what's keeping you from being successful, 'cause you're adding 12 times the complexity.

Like stop. Figure out what you're main business is, and just focus on that. Just get that done. And you guys are going to love it. That's what I did. That's why the MLM one worked. I said no to everything else. I jumped out at, uh, I guess that wasn't my first successful phone. It might have been my second one. It was one of the earlier ones.

Very, very early ones...

And I focused like crazy, and it took me like six months to build because I was in the middle of college, and I was shooting videos, and I was transcribing, and I was doing all that stuff. Every waking moment I had was about that. And I want you guys to start doing that as well.

Now for those of you guys who have a core business and you guys are actually getting out there and it's thriving, I want you to apply the principle that I talked about like two or three episodes ago about "duct tape marketing".

What are people doing with the product after. You actually sell it to them, and that'll easily guide you into the next product you need to create.

Anyways, I've been going, going, going, but I hope that this has been helpful. I've really a good episode. Bear down on the core offer. Figure out what that really is, right. Russell gets hit up like crazy on tons and tons of these different offers he could go for. Cool opportunities.

You know, keep changing the world and stuff like that...

But, he's drilled down on this core offer...

And because of that, he still gets to make money and change the world at the same time. Right, because he's put the focus in. Anyways guys it's kind of a long episode, and I'm so sorry. It just made me think about that like crazy, like keep hitting the core offer. If you have more than one idea inside of a funnel, and it's not converting well, it's probably 'cause you have more than one idea. Guys, I hope it's okay.

And I hope the sound quality is okay. I have a boom mic now with this cool windscreen. And I can't promise it will all be this awesome-sounding, but I did some tests, and I was like, dang this sounds really, really good.

So, I hope you guys are doing awesome. And I would like to keep hearing some of the stories that have just been so touching, some of the things you guys have said and pushed out, And four thousand downloads in two days, my gosh, thanks so much. It's really ramping up like crazy.

I think it was four thousand downloads total two months ago. Last month was eight thousand, so it doubled. And then it's been four thousand the last two days. It's nuts. So, anyway, I just wanted to keep thank you guys for that, and I had no idea, and it's just very, very touching.

All right guys, get out there, figure out the core offer, and I will talk to you later.

Bye.

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