Episode 064 | The #1 reason your podcast isn't generating sales for you

You're there. You've launched the podcast. You know how to hook in listeners, how to create compelling, captivating content that hooks them in. It's like the Netflix effect with the content. You've nailed your discovery content strategy. New people are finding you. New people are coming into your world.

It's all going great. Except you're not converting leads into sales. You're not converting your listeners. into leads, into sales. This is the final episode in our four part miniseries on turning your podcast into a sales conversion engine for your business. And today we're deep diving into secret number four.

Hi, I'm Viv Guy, seven figure business owner turned online mentor, on a mission to help struggling coaches and course creators to navigate the rollercoaster that is running an online business. So that you can [00:01:00] attract dream clients. and hit your enrollment and sales targets every single month so that you can reach six figures and beyond.

If you're ready to create a thriving and profitable podcast to accelerate your audience growth, engagement, and sales, tune in each week as I throw back the curtain and share all the insider secrets I've learned from 20 years of entrepreneurship. You'll learn how to market, sell, and grow a thriving, sustainable online business in a way that's makes you money and allows you the freedom to thrive.

This is Podcast Sales Made Easy.

Picture this. You've created a place now. Where people can really connect with your content. You're adding so much value with the nurture content. You've figured out how to get discovered, to bring in new listeners to the podcast. Your downloads are [00:02:00] increasing every episode. Your email list is growing. You get really nice comments and reviews from people, ratings.

And it's all feeling great. However You're just not seeing the conversions. You're not seeing the conversions in the form of sales. Sure, you've got people joining your email list. Sure, you've got people coming in and reading your emails, and you've got great open rates, and you've got people listening to your episodes.

And that's where ingredient number four comes in. This is the bit that is missing from so many programs out there. It's the final hurdle that people fall at time and time again. It's why people have webinars that just don't get people showing up to them or signing up to them. Calls to action that don't convert.[00:03:00] 

Opt ins that don't convert. Sales calls that end with, it's not the right time. I can't afford it. It's frustrating as heck when this happens, guys. It's like, there's nothing worse. You're like, I, what am I doing? I'm giving value. I'm giving all this amazing stuff. People really like what I do, but they're not buying from me.

Why? Why is this happening? Well, it's because your strategy has not joined up before now. You've been trying to kind of stick random bits of content and strategy together and nothing has been fully connected. And this is why it's so important that we have our four elements working together. I want your podcast, I want your business to avoid being like that of so many social media influencers out there.[00:04:00] 

Where they've got huge followings, huge audiences. But they're not making the sales. They've got a really small sales conversion. Or really, they're making barely any money. And I do not want that for you. And that's where this fourth component, this sales component, is so, so important. Because so often, Sales gets bolted on to the end of everything.

Gets bolted on to your funnel. But it is an integral part of your funnel. And it's something, the sales is something we need to consider right back at the beginning of our journey. Because there has to be absolute congruence with your messaging and the content that you create throughout your funnel in order for you to get the conversions and make the sales when somebody has been through your entire funnel, when they have been through [00:05:00] that journey.

So there has to be congruence with that messaging. We have to have the end in mind, the sale, the, the offer, the program. But remember that has to come from our foundations, our messaging, our understanding of our ideal clients problems. We have to design a program that addresses that. So if we talk and we've dialed in our messaging, but we're actually selling something that's misaligned or trying to sell something that's misaligned, it's never going to work.

So that end thing has to, we have to look at that at the very beginning of the journey and not just create a bolt on. Because everything we talk about, the entire journey we take people on, the pathway, the content that we create, from our opt ins to our episode content, it all has to link to that end product.

Because that's what a conversion podcast [00:06:00] is. Your conversion podcast is designed to generate sales for your podcast. You don't have to have a conversion podcast, but if you're here and you're listening to this, everything I'm going to talk about is how to get conversions, sales. audience members, how to convert at every step of your funnel.

That's what this is about because I want you to make sales. I want you to make sales in a way that is easy, that gives you a much higher return on investment than the strategies you may have used previously. So when we create our sales funnel, We need to be really clear from the off, like where, what are the steps?

What are the steps that we want to take people on? Imagine stepping stones over a river. And if there are a couple of stepping stones missing, then you can't get to the other side. You're stuck. You're kind of stuck where you are. [00:07:00] And I want you to think about your journey that you want to take people on.

From when they first hear about you and discover that you exist, right through to them becoming a paying client and saying, Yes! I'm in! And beyond. There is more beyond. But right now I just want to focus on getting them to the point of saying, Yes! Sign me up! I am in! I am a hell yes! So we want to think of like, what are each of those little stepping stones that we're going to take people across and take people on?

So that we can understand actually, is that too big a leap? Is there something, or is there a stone missing here? Because sometimes, you know, we can go across on the stepping stones and they're too far apart, we can't make the jump. So they're all there, but it's too big. We need to put another one in, in place.

And that's so often what happens. We set, you know, we can be asking people to take too big a next step. So we really need to map out our entire funnel. The [00:08:00] conversions we're looking to get, take people through at every step of the way. It's like hurdles, isn't it? Do you remember, did you have two hurdles in sports at school?

Where you kind of got to go over one, and then go over the other, and go over the next one. Or horse racing, where they're going to jump the fence, and jump the next fence, and jump the next, or hedgerow, or whatever it might be. I don't know. It's the same principle. What is the next thing we want to get people over, the next step we want to take people through.

And so we need to have this considered. Because if it's not considered, the strategy in everything we're doing within our content, all we're doing is producing content. So I talked in a previous episode about the three different types of content. Discovery content, nurture content, conversion content. And why so many people, like 90 percent of the time are spending their time just creating nurture content.

Now we've obviously talked in the previous episode about discovery content. Well, what we want to think about now is conversion content. What is that content going to look like? Because we can nurture till the cows come home, [00:09:00] but we need to think about what does that conversion content look like? And what are the steps we're going to take people through?

And I want you to consider where you're leading people to. What is the ultimate piece of That, that, that ultimate superstar, I think Taki Moore calls it, like hero content. The thing, the final, the final destination you want people to go to before they convert into a client. And that could be a webinar, it could be a masterclass, it could be a private podcast, uh, could be a sales page, which I'm going to talk about, uh, in future episodes, I don't recommend, uh, for most people.

It could be a sales conversation, a sales call. So I want you to think about what is that, that superstar, hero piece of content that you're going to design, that everything is leading people to. And then that [00:10:00] piece of content should be totally aligned, should be congruent with every single thing that you have created within your funnel.

Because we don't, what I see so often happening is people produce content and then they invite people to something that it's just not closely linked. It's not closely linked enough to their core content or what they've talked about. There's a real disconnect. And something I see so often happening with that final conversion content, which remember, when people are coming to this point, they should be really, really close to that point of saying, Ah, yeah, like, I'm really close.

Like, I just need to find out a little bit more. Like, I'm really, really interested in this. This, like, this, this. This thing, this philosophy that you have, sounds like exactly what I need. This approach, this whatever you've got, it [00:11:00] sounds like what I need. That's what we want people to be at that point of that degree of interest and buy in already.

Because remember, we've already got their interest from our core content. We've already got their interest at that initial stage when we looked at relevance. We've established credibility through our content, and now really it's about value. Like that credibility, can they deliver it? Yes. And the value piece.

So it's just that, those final little steps that we want to create through that piece of, of conversion content. And what I see is there's too much convincing needs to happen at this stage. So you approach this as a, very much a, like, convince, convince, convince people, like, this is the way, this is the way, this is the way, and it's a real uphill slog.

Whereas really, at this stage, we [00:12:00] want them bought into, ideally, your philosophy already. So if you go through a challenge, if you do a launch, People are already, through the content that you're creating in that lead up, they're bought in, they understand, they've got a level of, of, uh, understanding of where you're at, your philosophy, your way of doing things.

Okay, you haven't revealed, like, your, your offer yet, but they're already sold on, like, you're the person potentially, you know, 90 percent of the way that you're the person to help them. So that conversion content, the job for that content is. Really, it's the Swiss cheese test. It's the Swiss cheese test. So you know Swiss cheese, but the holes in it.

That's fundamentally what I want your conversion content to be doing. It is not to be doing tons of convincing. Yes, there's convincing like, I am the right person at this final stage, you know, or this is the right offer. But this is the right offer [00:13:00] because you're gonna paint the, the picture, the holes.

that they have in their current approach or strategy. The holes show them what is missing. And that's what we want that conversion content to do. To highlight these are the gaps you've got. These are the bits that you maybe don't know how to do. And my solution, my thing, is going to help you do that. But all of the stuff around like, why this is the right approach.

we want to have done earlier on within our process. And so then crafting that conversion content becomes a lot easier. The other thing I see people really falling down and why they don't get the conversions because they don't have any system or framework in place.[00:14:00] 

From as simple as tracking leads, people that have raised their hand, that have inquired to following up with previous leads. I mean, following up is a great, great way to make more sales. Checking in with people, previous people you've had conversations with, people that you've had DM conversations with, follow up because now they might be in that position where they they're interested.

But if you don't have a system for this, you're losing sales, potentially. So we need to bring in systems and we need to automate. If you're a course creator, if you're an online coach, we want to have systems in place because I want you to spend your time in your zone of genius. And I want you to make it as easy as possible for the right people to come through your process, through your funnel, through that journey, that pathway with you.

[00:15:00] to get to that point of sale. I want it to be as easy and simplified as possible. And so often there are not the steps in place, not the automations. And when I'm talking about automations, I'm thinking, you know, are you automating, for example, when somebody comes on board, is there an automation process in place there for inviting them to a webinar, for nurturing them, for signposting them to your podcast, to wherever you want them to be signposted to?

What are those steps? What are those automations? Because we want to ensure that when we bring people into that next step, there's another next step and another next step. The domino effect is happening each, through each part of that journey. So what we're going to do, guys, is we want to optimize your sales mechanisms for the maximum number of conversions.

And as I said, this is where I just don't want you to fall down all that hard work that you've put into, you know, creating content, growing your audience, nurturing your [00:16:00] audience, getting visible, getting in front of new people. I don't want you to fall at the final hurdle when it comes to converting people.

And that means we have to test. We have to analyze the data and the results of those tests. And then we have to review and tweak and change. And if you listen to me, you'll hear me talk lots and lots about micro tweaks. Because so often people go, I did the strategy, so instead of doing a masterclass, I'm going to do sales calls.

Instead of doing this, I'm going to do that. No. We want to look at which part of that process didn't work. Which part could be improved to optimize your conversions? And that's why this sales process and this part is so important. Because this is what's going to make the money come in. This is what's going to generate you consistent revenue in your business.

And that is ultimately what every entrepreneur wants is [00:17:00] consistent recurring monthly revenue predictability. So we have to look, we have to experiment, we have to test, and we have to see what works and optimize those sales mechanisms. And what we will generally find is that often the issue, the problem is not always in the actual conversion mechanisms, the sales mechanisms.

We often need to work backwards. It's actually, is it a messaging problem? Is it a content problem? Where is that problem occurring earlier on in your funnel? Because fundamentally, if we get someone to a sales call, We should not be having to push for a sale. If we are experiencing objections, we need to be addressing those earlier on within our funnel.

We want to get to that point where at the end, [00:18:00] all those things have been addressed. So as I said, people come to that call like 90 percent ready to say, yes, they just need that final. Is this going to work for me, for my business or for my needs? So, with that in mind, I really want you to build out and think about those four elements because I want to avoid you being that person, like the person I saw on Bake Off last week.

Huge fan. Love it. My five year olds got really into it. Last week they were making, uh, the last episode I watched was they were making, I think, chocolate bombs as their technical challenge. And someone forgot to put their flour into the mixture, which meant, well, it didn't work. And that's exactly what's going to happen here if you miss out on one of the four ingredients we've covered in this mini series.

You set out to create one thing. Your ultimate podcast sales machine. That's what you're setting out to create. But if you miss one of the elements out You're not going to get the results that [00:19:00] you want. You are not going to create the whole thing, which is something that produces consistent sales and revenue, that builds your audience consistently, that drives traffic.

So yes, I do want you to top the charts, uh, So yes, I do want you to top the charts with your podcast, but more importantly, I want you to make sales. I want you to create and build out the ultimate podcast sales machine. That is my goal for you. That is my wish for you. And I am here to support you every step of the way.

Just make sure you've hit subscribe to the show so you get every single update of new episodes as they drop. And look, if you love what you've heard today, I would love, love, love for you to connect with me on Instagram at Viv. guy and share with me your biggest takeaway. And while you're at it, as I always say, I know nobody likes to take the time to do these things, but [00:20:00] really not many people do realize how much your reviews help other people who are really struggling in their business right now to find this show.

So if you really love what you heard, it would mean the world to me if you would take a moment, like 15 seconds at most, to tap the five stars and write a sentence or two and let me know. And when you do, look, I don't expect something for nothing. I'm going to enter you into a draw and you can win a free 90 minute mentoring call with me, which we draw monthly.

Just send me a DM with a screenshot of your review and we'll enter it into the draw. So let's get the needle moving in your business this week. Remember, go and dare to try new things, to experiment, to do the thing, and to review the results. Dare. Do. Review. Because I have got you.[00:21:00]