How I made my first sale

I’m going to walk you through, step by step, all of the issues I had to address to make my first high-ticket sales and how you can do the same.

Show Notes

Keeping it real, I feel like I wasted so much time trying to figure out selling and running a business when I first got started. It turns out that my first few sales where just around the corner when I got support, got focused, and took imperfect actions. Over the years, my sales process has evolved as I’ve narrowed down the most important activities for finding and signing new clients. But it wasn’t easy. There were roadblocks, mindset drama, self-confidence issues and more. 

Making a conscious effort to deal with it all as it came gave me my edge and I know the same will be true for you if this is something you're struggling with in your business.  

I’m going to walk you through, step by step, through my process of signing my first high-ticket clients and show you how you can do the same. 

  

Resources mentioned in this episode

• Get on a clarity call with Khalida

More on Khalida

 

Khalida DuBose is a business mentor specializing in sales strategy. As a previous crowdfunding coach, she supported more than a thousand crowdfunding campaigns and project creators in their quest to bring their dreams, passions, and ideas to the world. Now, she focuses on helping women of color who are early-stage online business owners as they navigate the entrepreneurial journey. For more information on Khalida, visit khalidadubose.com.

 

Follow Khalida on Instagram @khalida.dubose. You can email her at [e-mail].

 

The Black Girl Business Bar is produced by Zuri Berry (@ZMCPodcasts). Music by Vincent Tone and Die Hard Productions.

Creators & Guests

Host

Khalida DuBose

Business + Mindset Coach

Producer

Zuri Berry

Principal Producer at ZMC Podcasts

What is The Black Girl Business Bar?

The Black Girl Business Bar Podcast is for Black entrepreneurial women who crave practical information to implement in their businesses and careers. They want tips and tactics that work and they want on-the-go mentorship that will make a difference in their businesses, projects, and lives.

Hosted by business coach and crowdfunding expert Khalida DuBose, the Black Girl Business Bar is all about letting Black women know what's possible for them in their entrepreneurial journey.

I felt like I was a hot mess. When I first decided to become a business owner. First, it took me 18 months to just take the leap. Then I spent a year trying to figure out which way was up. It turns out that I wasn't doing as bad as I thought. And my first sell was just around the corner. Once I started following the steps, then I'm going to share with you on today's show.

Hi, welcome to the Black Girl Business Bar podcast. This podcast is for women of color entrepreneurs. I'm your host Khalida DuBose. And I started this podcast because I want to help women of color thrive in their businesses, careers and lives. That means first learning what's possible and then figuring out how to make it all happen.

Today, I want to share with you how I signed my first few clients and how you can do the same if you're just getting started, or if you've been at it for a while, but you still working through getting consistent sales.

All right. So let's jump right in here because I know if you're listening to this episode, then that means that you're probably struggling with signing your first client or signing your next client, or just getting really consistent with your selling. So I'm going to share with you exactly what I did in a list form because I love lists and it's going to take you step-by-step on what I did to get my first sale.

And then I did it again and again and again.

My sales process has evolved and I will not be able to fit everything that I do into the sales process in this podcast. But this is every single thing you need to know to start getting sales. I promise you that. So, as I said, when I started this, I was a hot mess and sometimes we all are so that's okay.

But to give you an idea of what I mean, I was constantly worried about what everyone thought. In fact, I worried so much about what my colleagues thought that I didn't even start my business until I got laid off from my last position, I was working for a startup and I kept thinking for about a year, I want to, you know, become a coach.

I want to do something on the side. I want to kind of have a side hustle. And I worried about the fact that I would have to be so visible on social media. And then my colleagues would find out and my bosses would find out. And I just, I was so concerned about that, that I kind of held myself back.

In retrospect, it would've been a lot smarter to start when I had a little bit of financial security, but I was too worried. As I said about all the things that looking back seem really silly now. So let's be clear. My first sale, when I say my first sale in this podcast, what I mean is my first premium high ticket sales for a proper offer that I was offering clients. Before making my first high ticket premium sale, I sold a bunch of low ticket, stitched together offers that I thought was okay to do, because I was hearing, I was brand new in the online space and I was hearing things like just get started or if things are perfect, you've waited too long to share them, or you've waited too long to launch them.

Or I would hear things like, I wish I had gone for it sooner. So these statements are probably very true for the entrepreneurs and business owners who are making these statements when I was listening to podcasts and hearing this, and I'm sure in the future, I'll probably make similar statements.

But context is everything. It's very important. And that is pretty much what I did not have when I was getting started. I just kept hearing, go for it, do it. You'll figure it out. And while I do think that's true, it took me a little bit longer. So when I was going forward and just kind of stitching it all together, I had four to five clients and I probably was getting on sales calls, you know, maybe two to three sales calls a week.

I had a nice stream of leads as we call them coming in, because I was listed on my previous employer's website as like a preferred provider, because they knew, I knew what I was doing with crowdfunding. At the time I was crowdfunding coaching and they listed me on the site. So I was getting a stream of leads in, but they weren't all the correct leads. They weren't the leads that I wanted. They weren't the people that I wanted to work with all the time. And so I was hopping on these calls, just feeling, you know, kind of desperate to get any kind of sale and work with people and start to build up, you know, my portfolio, because I had completely forgot about the fact that I didn't need to be so desperate.

I had already coached a thousand people on crowdfunding. I had already worked with so many different creators and their requests to get their businesses started to launch something, you know, and in that time I was doing a lot of business coaching. I was doing a lot of crowdfunding. Of course I was doing the crowdfunding coaching.

And so I didn't really need to come to those calls, when I started my own business, I didn't really need to approach my sales calls in such a desperate manner, but that's what happens when you kind of forget all of your results and you forget everything that you've done. So when I got started, I had these clients and I sold every single one, something completely different.

So I went from selling coaching, and email templates to single sessions and done for you work. And that's why I said it felt like such a hot mess because I was just there, you know, just kind of seeing what worked and just doing what people asked me. I was allowing my clients to kind of do this a la carte.

No, I want this. Yes. I want that. Well, this is what we're looking for. So can you do this for us. And just saying yes to everything and then really not knowing how to price it because I was showing up without having a standard price. So you can now see why I said, I use the phrase hot mess.

Also at this time, I wasn't doing a lot of marketing. I was posting on Instagram or Facebook a couple times a month, at best, talking about crowdfunding, you know, mentioning things here and there about crowdfunding, no plans, no kind of content plan. Nothing was really cohesive. And I was really just trying to figure it out. I was looking at what everybody else was doing and I was trying to copy it with my information. So I was trying to look at what other people were doing and kind of almost template. So it was tough. I was just lucky to be getting on these calls, because as I said, there was a source that I had that was coming in.

The second source was I would have people refer me. So I did get into a few, Facebook groups where I met some of the admins of those Facebook groups and talked to them and told them what I did. And then, you know, they would pass along when they would hear somebody come into their group and say, oh, I'm thinking about crowdfunding.

And they'd be like, oh, you need to talk to Khalida DuBose. And they tag me or they'd give my information then that person would end up booking a call. So that's how I kind of got my first few clients that were very low ticket. Like I said, stitched together. And now I'm going to share with you how I upped my game and stopped playing around in the dirt, in the mud and got serious about it.

So the first thing that I did, the first step that I took was I hired a business coach. I knew it was time because I had tried doing it on my own. I had tried self paced courses that had like huge Facebook groups and those just weren't the strategies or the support that I needed. So I hired a business coach and I have to say to this day it was the best thing that I ever did for myself.

And my coach helped me to remember a lot of what I had already done and helped me to keep in mind that I just really needed a little bit of organization and strategy, and I was already coming with the information, the knowledge, and that's typically what I see as well as a business coach.

We already know how to be the practitioner. We already know how to do the thing that we're doing. A lot of times it's just orienting ourselves to how to run a business because that's what we're doing new. So my coach was there for accountability. When it came to executing new projects like this podcast. She was there for accountability when I was putting together a proper offer. She helped me narrow down strategies. And most importantly, she helped me with all of my mindset drama. All of the times where I wasn't believing in myself, when I was having visibility blocks, and just working through some of the tough moments in life.

So step number one, I got help.

That could look different for you. It really depends on the personality of a person, but I strongly believe in one-to-one coaching or group, you know, kind of mastermind programs where there's, that one-to-one component where you have some access to the coach.

All right. So step number two, I created a proper premium offer.

As I said, I was exhausted from hopping on dozens of calls and not selling or selling stitched together offers. I was constantly going into calls cold, not knowing who was going to be on the other end. What they were going to ask of me and knowing that I was going to cave and say yes to whatever it was. When we got around to pricing, I always started sweating buckets because I was just, I just didn't even know how to price things.

You know, I would just sit sometimes, you know, when I was not on a call and I would think, okay, well, let me just do some quick math. You know, if this person purchases this many hours from me, then I can make this much money. No strategy there whatsoever. So I got serious in creating that premium offer.

With a proper offer. I was able to qualify leads before they came in. For example, if a person was interested in done for you services or templates or something that I had sold in the past, they knew I was not the girl for that anymore. I was done with that. I was strictly doing coaching where I was helping with strategy, et cetera. No more done for you services. No more a la carte stuff. I showed them, this is what I do. This is how we work together. This is what you can expect from me. And so with a premium offer. Also comes premium pricing. If you guys heard last week's podcast, then you know I talked to you all about why you need to have premium pricing.

With premium pricing, it also meant that people were serious about getting on calls with me, at least more so. You know, I had maybe like one to two calls where maybe the person didn't really understand. But for the most part, when people were opting in and saying, yes, I want to get on a call with you and see if we can work together.

They knew, okay, this is a person who can potentially solve my problem. And that's going to come along with some type of commitment financially and time-wise. So premium pricing, premium offer is a must.

Step number three, I made sure my offer was complete in a great container. So how do I explain the container?

What I really mean here is I let people know how they would work with me, what they could expect from working together, how I could help them, what were the terms of us working together. That way, nothing was vague. Nobody signed with me and they were like, Hey, I thought I was getting this. Or, you know, hey, I want to try this.

And if a person did say that, or if that happens to you, then you always have your offer your terms, your contract to fall back on and just remind them, you know, gently remind them like, hey, this is the work that we're going to be doing together. So that really helped me a lot. This also meant that I got very, very clear on who I was helping.

So you can call this niching or specialized. I'll be honest here. I still was working through this part. So I had gotten to the point where I said, okay, I want to do crowdfunding coaching, no done for you services. And I want to work with entrepreneurs, but I was still, you know, working with people who are doing service-based offer or crowdfunding campaigns and also people who are doing product. Eventually. I said, you know what? I just want to work with product, because it was just a little bit more clear for me.

So, I was narrowing it down and that is, that really helps you when you're thinking about the container, because you know exactly what those people were going to need and so you don't feel like you have to make that container so broad to accommodate so many different types of people.

Step number four, I started telling my story.

I was talking about how I got started, what I had done, how I helped other people. And to be clear, I was still talking to very few people, but I was starting to make some noise. So for instance, I went on a podcast and I spoke about how I raised $16,000 myself. And again, I was in Facebook groups, you know, speaking, when I would see entrepreneurs talk about crowdfunding or talk about needing to raise money.

Or if they, you know, comment on something that I happen to be posting infrequently, then I would start a conversation. And so telling my story, helped my customers to see my talents and what was possible for them, because I was also mentioning the results I personally got when I was crowdfunding.

I was mentioning the results that previous clients of mine had gotten. So people were able to see, okay, this is what's possible for me. This person might be the person who could help me. It also made me personally remember what I had done and gave me that boost of confidence along the way. So remember I said, my coach really helped me to start to remember and part of what her and I worked on was talking about the things that I had done.

You know, it seems like that will come natural, but a lot of times as entrepreneurs, especially women. We really have a hard time talking about what we've done. That could stem from being told, as you were growing up, like, don't talk about what you've done. Don't brag. Don't be arrogant. Or it could just stem from, you know, maybe your own personality. Maybe you just have a little bit more modesty.

But in this case, in the online space, we need to talk about our stories. We need to, you know, speak about the results that our clients have gotten so that it can help other people to make an informed decision. So that's what I started doing. And, I started making a little bit noise and I just want to point out here that I really feel like even though I was just infrequently showing up on a podcast or showing up in a Facebook group, you know, we're talking to people here and there and I wasn't posting a lot.

It's very interesting to note that people still knew me as a crowdfunding coach. People still remembered, huh? This is what she does. And so anybody out there who's posting and they feel like, oh, nobody knows. Just keep at it. Keep working at it. Keep refining. Because people will remember you. And I think the big thing there is consistency, even though I didn't have consistency and I preach consistency.

I think I only with a little bit lucky in the case, because crowdfunding is not as, as common as other types of coaching, for instance, like business coaching or mindset coaching or trauma coaching, et cetera. So I think when people hear crowdfunding, it really stands out to them.

But my point here is just stay consistent and keep going and keep posting whatever your consistency is. If that's two times a week right now, just keep doing it. People are hearing it. All right. So rant over,

Step number five, I started to sell, so sell as an S E L L. And I'm using that as an acronym, which stands for seek, engage, listen, and learn. I was a crowdfunding coach and there weren't that many of us around. So it was really hard to figure out what everybody else who was crowdfunding was doing. Sometimes we think that it's not fun being in like a saturated industry like a business coach, but a lot of times it's kind of cool because we can look to see what might be working for somebody else. Or we can kind of look to see what others are doing and we can take our cues. We can make our own way.

Sometimes when there's like really no path, it can be a little bit tricky. So I started to seek out entrepreneurs who wanted to launch a product or might be raising money in the near future. And then I started engaging with them to see where I could be of help, what they were looking for, what they were even thinking about launching soon, what their experience level was with launching, with marketing, et cetera, everything that was related to crowdfunding.

I listened to their concerns and what they wanted. And I started to learn about what I should put in my offer, how I should market to them.

So that's what I did. I started to tell myself to go through this framework and find my people. Engage with them, start to listen to them, and figure out what it is that they want. Learn from them and implement that. So that is, that was what I started doing. And that went into what was going to go into my offer or how I could update my offer.

And that went into what was going to become a part of my marketing.

Step number six, I started to invite people to calls. So I'll just let you know, things were not perfect. When I started inviting people to call. What I did have was my coach. I had a proper offer. My pricing was premium and I knew what the container was going to be.

I had a pretty decent idea of who I was serving. And I started seeking out people, as I said, but step number five was kind of always fluid, always influx. You're still, you're going to always be doing that. It's not something that you just do once and then you're done. So when I got to step number six and I was inviting people to calls, I invited them to calls or I shared information on social media about how they could contact me. So sometimes I would send people DMs, as I said, sometimes people were referring me as well. Sometimes I would just post and say, Hey, I'm open for crowdfunding coaching.

Since I was no longer stitching together on the fly, I was getting on less and less calls. So I had to be proactive about reaching out to people. I knew at some point that I was not going to be able to rely on the website where a lot of my leads were coming through because a lot of them were nonprofits.

They didn't want to pay, they wanted tons and tons of free advice. They wanted to be able to pay me hourly. They wanted me to do a lot of done for them. And so I've, I figured those are probably not a good lead source for me. And so I had to figure out another way and that really just was meeting people in groups. Meeting people around the way, talking to them and then inviting them to calls, commenting on their threads and seeing if they wanted to speak a little bit further in a direct message or if they want to get on a call with me. So that's what I started with.

A couple of times I had a few places here and there that I spoke to people like on Clubhouse.

You know, I was like, I appeared as a guest and talked in some, you know, entrepreneurial groups about crowdfunding on Clubhouse. And I also have a Clubhouse profile over there, even though I'm not active on Clubhouse. It's not part of my strategy right now. And people did search crowdfunding and Clubhouse and found me that way as well.

So basically what I'm trying to say here is just be proactive and inviting people and starting the conversation.

Step number seven, I listened to it before and during the calls. So I was still trying different strategies for what felt good to me on sales calls.

My coach was helping me and coaching me along the way we were walking through parts of the calls after I would finish calls. I would tell her, you know, this didn't feel good, or I wasn't sure how to handle this part of the call. And so we kind of practiced, we talked about it so that I could get into my rhythm. And I do still believe even to this day, it's still a practice is still seeing what works, but I showed up ready to listen and to add value to people that I was speaking with.

So I always assume that if a person is getting on a sales call with me, that they absolutely have a problem that needs to be solved, otherwise they wouldn't waste their time getting on a call. Secondly, they think that I'm the person who can solve the problem. So I'm always showing up ready to give them some value because I may or may not be the person once we have a discussion and that could be determined by me, or that could be determined by them.

So I stepped into my leadership on the call in various ways that helped with the flow, that allowed me to dig deeper, you know, ask, you know, questions that were a little bit below the surface and that way I could support the potential client in any decision that they decided to make by the end of that call, whether that was to work with me, not work with me, if they needed a little bit more time to think, you know, if they wanted me to give them some steps to go forward, I was there to support them. So I think leadership was big.

And as I said before, and during the call, you need to really be listening to for what they want, what they're looking for.

And then this brings me to the final step, which is step number eight.

I did a crap ton of mindset work, and this isn't really a step by itself. Technically this mindset work has was going on throughout the entire process. Throughout the entire process, I was working with my coach when I was putting together an offer a block of time. When I was posting a block would come up when I was in Facebook groups, things would come up, you know, things come up that we don't even know are there in business.

And so I was constantly working with my coach to keep my mindset in check and in the process I developed my own kind of check-in with myself, my own framework, for dealing with my mindset drama, which I'm going to be sharing very soon with all of you.

Working with my mindset was something that my coach was very stellar at.

You know, I have to give her props. She really just held a lot of space for me. She was encouraging. She pushed me when I needed to be pushed because you know what, just so you know, it's not all, you know, sunshine and roses. You can't always just hear what you want to hear. And your coach is there to push you and say the things that you need to hear.

And sometimes it wasn't easy for me, but I always appreciated it 100%. I always appreciated it. Another thing that I noticed about my coach was that she was amazing at keeping her own boundaries and that really helped me to practice my boundaries. And I really could see, you know, what a great leader she was. And it's just so nice when you have that model to you, because then it makes it easier for you to do it.

Mindset work comes in handy when you're, diving into the intangible world of the mind. You know, it's really hard to say, I was able to sell because of all this mindset work.

So I know this can seem a little bit intangible and it's really hard to pinpoint, you know, exactly. what did you do? I know exactly what I did. I know everything that we went through, but for the most part, I'll tell you this. When something came up, when something was in my mind, when there was too much chatter, when I was having mindset drama, I just dealt with it.

The times that I didn't deal with it because this process wasn't perfect. The times that I didn't deal with it, it came back to bite me in the butt. And, it wasn't fun. But we worked on all the stuff, visibility blocks, self-confidence, and affirmations, and more. So I'm going to talk to you guys soon about affirmations on the show, because I believe in them.

And I like to explain them the way I think about them, because I know a lot of people out there just think it's kind of, you know, fu fu stuff. But, I'll explain to you why I believe in them so much.

So those were my steps. I hired a business coach. I created a proper offer. I made sure that offer was in a complete container. I started telling my story very imperfectly. I started selling the acronym, sell, seek, engage, listen and learn. I invited people to calls. I listened before and during the call. And I did mindset work throughout the entire process.

So I really hope that it's helpful for you, even if you do not decide to go out and get yourself a coach, I think you can go through these steps.

You can really start to think through them. I highly recommend if you want to fast track your success that you reach out and you get help. If this is something that you've been struggling. As I said, I spent a year just thinking, okay, I can figure this out. I'm smart enough. Yes, you are smart. And yes, I understand what it feels like to get frustrated with yourself because you're like, why can't I figure this out?

I was a previous engineer. I was a previous doctor. I was a previous therapist. This is something completely different. So you're learning how to run a business. You're learning how to do structure and there's no shame in seeking help. I would love to be the one to talk to you and support you around this.

If you are interested, you can get on a free clarity call with me. I will have the links in the show notes. If you want to talk about your offer, if you want to talk about any part of this process, or just what you need to move forward, I would love to support you around that.

All right, friends. Thank you so much for hanging out and listening to the Black Girl Business Bar podcast. If you haven't already hit that follow or subscribe button, so you never miss an episode. Also, if you're loving this podcast or any particular episode resonated with you, I would be super grateful if you would rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts. Or take a screenshot and share in your stories on social media so other women of color can find the show. We're dropping episodes every Tuesday, and we can't wait to see you back then.