Episode 197: LaTisha Styles – Strategies for Engaging Your Ideal Clients and Overcoming Introvert Challenges

LaTisha Styles  00:02

For me, Making sales social means leaning into your nature and your way of being social. Some people’s method and way of being social is being more extroverted or out there or very talkative and for others, It leans into their personality of being more introverted, and as an introvert, I always say that, “That’s okay, Introverts are great at making sales as well”.

Bob Woods  00:29

Welcome to the Making Sales Social Podcast featuring the top voices in sales, marketing and business. Join Brynne Tillman and me, Bob Woods, as we each bring you the best tips and strategies our guests are teaching their clients so you can leverage them for your own virtual and social selling. Enjoy the show!

Brynne Tillman  00:54

Welcome back to Making Sales Social. I’m so excited about my guest, LaTisha Styles, who is a speaker, author, coach and online marketing certified professional. She’s the founder and CEO of You’ve Got Clients and author of the forthcoming book: “Assume The Throne –  Steps to Unlock Your True Identity and Power as a Leader” to her audience of over 88,000 followers, subscribers and regular viewers. 

LaTisha provides tips, guidance and insights on marketing branding, content creation mindset, and more. Her work has been featured in notable publications, including Forbes’ Fast Company and Business Insider. Pretty impressive! Welcome to the show.

LaTisha Styles  01:46

So thanks. Thanks for having me here. I’m excited. Thrilled to be here.

Brynne Tillman  01:49

So the first question we ask all of our guests is, What does making sales social mean to you?

LaTisha Styles  01:57

I love this question. For me, making sales social means leaning into your nature and your way of being social. Some people’s method and way of being social is being more extroverted or out there or very talkative, and for others, It leans into their personality of being more introverted. And as an introvert, I always say that “That’s okay. Introverts are great at making sales as well.” And so for me making sales socialist leaning into your nature, rather than trying to fight against it.

Brynne Tillman  02:29

Oh, I love that answer. And I’m not sure we’ve gotten that one yet. So I think that’s awesome in the 100 episodes plus that we’ve done. So I love that thank you so much. A lot of what you do is supporting demand generation efforts through strategic content and brands. Right? So I guess, with the goal of building brand awareness and business, We’ll talk a little bit about that.  

LaTisha Styles  02:57

Yeah, absolutely. So one of the things I believe is that people who are very passionate about what they do, and they have a service, or you know, It could be a product, but they have a service that they really want to share. Generally speaking, there’s a reason that they decided to go into that business, there’s a reason that they decided to bring that forth. 

And when we think about a personal brand, sometimes people believe that your personal brand is just, you know, what you say online, or maybe you know, how you market yourself, but I truly believe at the “Core of Your Personal Brand is your Message”. It’s your calling. It’s the reason why you decided to do this versus doing something else. 

And so with that in mind, when we start thinking about, okay, how do we generate demand? How do we, you know, do all those marketing systems? It’s Like, well, “First, Let’s go to the base and the core of why you do what you do?” And “Why is that important to you?” Because once we determine that, we can really figure out what the message needs to be from there.

Brynne Tillman  03:54

Oh, I love that. You talk a lot about video marketing assets and customizing content for your audience. What does that actually mean? I mean, I know a video is but how do you use video in the marketing that’s customized?

LaTisha Styles  04:11

Yeah, sure. And I think this answer also kind of goes along with the first answer, which is understanding that everyone is different in terms of their energy, how they want to show up and what they want to provide. And even though there might be a current trend, or something that everyone else is doing, if it doesn’t feel congruent to who you are, the marketing aspect of it is going to come across stiff. 

So what that means is you have to understand like, if your personality is fairly chill, and you’re not the type of person that’s, you know, for lack of a better word, sounds like a car salesman with a very high attitude, then it makes sense for you to maybe do something a little bit more dry so to speak, write something that’s a little bit more in tune with your personality and really find your are people. 

I really believe that when it comes to video, because people can see you, they can also hear you obviously, but because they can see you, it’s a lot easier to make a connection. Because you can kind of get that know like and trust factor going fairly quickly. But in order to do that you have to be authentic and being authentic means “How do you show up” How do you want to show up, and then let’s incorporate that into all of the video and content and things that you create.

Brynne Tillman  05:25

So I think you said something in there that really resonated with me, which is, you will attract your people, Right? There’s a we always hear, there’s so much business for everyone. There’s a ton of business out there. But the idea that being yourself will attract the people that you want to work with, is really a very important piece of this. So don’t go, what I’m hearing is don’t go have someone write you a script for your video that has never talked to you or identified who you are. That script doesn’t mean anything if it’s not authentically you.

LaTisha Styles  06:05

Absolutely. And one thing I will say is if you have a conversation with someone you’re fairly close with, and just have them ask you questions, ask you questions about your business, whatever topic you want to talk about, just have them ask you questions, because that conversation is generally speaking going to be a lot more fluid, It’s gonna be a lot more relaxed, and it’s really going to reflect who you are, Because you’re already comfortable with that person.

When I first started creating videos online, I always imagined that my sister was on the other side of the camera. And I like to make her laugh. She’s like, you know, my personality comes out when I speak to my sister. And so my very first videos when I was very nervous about videos, my very first videos came across as my true personality because I was imagining having a conversation with her.

Brynne Tillman  06:50

I love that! I remember the switches out. When I started in sales, I had a little mirror because they always said “You have to Smile and People can hear your smile”. But now I want to have a picture of, you know, my grandbaby that makes me smile, Right? Yeah. Can you have your sister up there with a little picture so that you can imagine that I think that’s brilliant.

I love that it’s such a simple thing. But it helps to bring out your authentic you. And I think that that’s really important. Just one more question on the video. You know, lots of people now create videos, Let’s say even one of your clients, you help them create a video, how do you use that video in marketing, that’s not just an ad, that really helps to engage the right buyers?

LaTisha Styles  07:40

Sure. So we’ll do a multi-step process where we consider creating content to engage your ideal client. And so this content will be less sales like it will be more of a “This is who I am”. And “This is why I enjoy what I do”. This is what’s important to me. So it’s a values-based thing. So if we kind of think of it kind of like how politicians sometimes create their ads, where they’re like, you know, this is who I am, and they’re shaking hands and kissing babies, it’s like that type of content, we kind of start there. 

And then we create more content, because we want to really play into the algorithms, we want to play into how social media works. And when someone engages with that first piece of content, they’re more likely to see the other pieces of content that you have. So we essentially start creating a sort of video funnel of sorts. 

So that next type of video would be something where we want to exchange value, so we’re going to provide value. And then at the end of the video, we’re going to ask for an email address, a phone number, some sort of exchange of value, then from there, we’re going to go into videos that are specific to enroll our ideal clients, and what those look like. 

These are usually what we would use as retargeting videos when someone you know pops onto a page, but doesn’t take the action that we want them to, they’re going to end up seeing these videos, and these are like a direct, more like direct response. So direct call to action. “Hey, I noticed that you, you know you went to schedule a call, but you didn’t schedule it. Here’s why it’s important to do that”. Or we might share testimonial style videos like “Hey, I just had a conversation with a client and they were here”. 

This is what they were able to accomplish. You know, take a look and hear about it in their own words. And so every video has a purpose. And we don’t want to cram everything into one video. So that’s really kind of the strategy behind the video content we create.

Brynne Tillman  09:33

I love that being a resource and adding education fit into this video marketing because often we talk about you have to earn the right and they need to experience you test drive you. How does video fit into that concept?

LaTisha Styles  09:49

My favorite place to add a really good chunk of education is by creating a 45 minute style training. Now the timeframe is going to differ depending on your audience and who you’re going after, eight minutes could be 45. But if there’s someone that you want to connect with, and you really want to demonstrate what you do, how you help, and you know that you understand their problem, then this is where I like creating a longer style training. 

Some people might call it a webinar, I call it an anti webinar, because honestly, most webinars are boring. And so it’s really just a matter of, here’s who I am, here’s, here’s how I can help you. And also, here’s some things that you maybe haven’t thought of before, so that you come away educated, my biggest goal is to create an educated buyer. 

And this is always what I tell my clients, you really want to create a buyer who feels like they are making the right decision, because they understand how to make that decision. And if you can create an educated buyer, they’ll like you more, and maybe they’ll buy from you. But maybe they’ll determine that you’re not the right person. And that’s okay as well.

Brynne Tillman  10:56

I really like that it is creating me. What do you do? How did you frame it creating an educated buyer?

LaTisha Styles  11:02

Correct? Yeah, creating an educated buyer.

Brynne Tillman  11:04

That’s good. That is really good. You know, it’s leading them to your solution. It’s not leading with where you’re pitching all the time. So I think that’s what. I love that.

LaTisha Styles  11:17

Yeah, it’s teaching them how to make the right decision, because especially so in a b2b world, you know, if you’re, if you’re selling b2b, you, you’re working with decision makers who often have been tasked with making this decision, and they want to make sure they make the right decision. 

If you’re working b2c, obviously, the individual also wants to make the right decision. But ultimately, It comes down to Can I be your partner to help you make the right decision, and therefore you don’t have to sell in a salesy way you can sell by helping them make the right decision. If that right decision is going with you, then great. And if not, then that’s fine as well.

Brynne Tillman  11:55

Yeah. And really, you’re creating trust and credibility. 

LaTisha Styles  11:59

Exactly. 

Brynne Tillman  12:00

That, yeah, when they’re ready to make the right decision, they trust you to do that. So I love that I always say our job is to either help a prospect, solve a problem, or introduce them to someone who can sell. 

LaTisha Styles  12:17

That’s exactly it. 

Brynne Tillman  12:18

Yeah. So that’s great. Now we, you know, we’ve got these opportunities that lead people to talk by coming through the door. How do we decide how much to charge? I know, something that you talk about often is that people don’t charge what they’re worth. So, First, how do you determine what you’re worth and why do people undervalue themselves?

LaTisha Styles  12:40

Yeah, and I say that because I often work with women, I also often work with minorities. And the biggest issue that I see is pricing based on what you think the other person is willing to pay, instead of pricing based on what your services are worth. And so one of the very first things we look at is let’s look at the market, let’s look at, you know what’s out there and be aware of that.

But then let’s also look at your offer, your unique expertise, and your background. And this is why we always start with your why, how you got into this, and what really makes you unique, because, you know, everyone’s unique, obviously, we’re all special snowflakes, but there’s some unique thing about you that the other person can’t get anywhere else. 

And so when you understand that you can incorporate that into what you do, you can then charge a premium for your services. And so this might look like, you know, being the highest price person in the marketplace, and that’s fine. 

But it also might look like just serving a specific niche, and really like planting your flag there, and then being that person there. So, you know, the reason I say that people have a hard time charging, because you know, they want to charge what they’re worth is that they’re not looking at what their services are worth? 

Like, What are your services worth? What is the value that you’re bringing to that client? And then how can you capture that value? And capture maybe a percentage of it. Because obviously, we’re never actually charging exactly what our services are worth.

Brynne Tillman  14:18

Yeah, So this is an interesting topic. How important is it for folks to understand the return on investment that their clients are getting by working with them so that they’re charging based on what the client will make or save by working with you?

LaTisha Styles  14:36

It’s everything, It’s everything. And what we do is we look at the tangible and intangible so you got your tangible which is you know you’re saving money you’re saving time you’re you know you’re able to you know anything you can quantify your tangible. Okay, good but then we also have intangible which is what other areas of their life or business are affected. 

What other domino effects do you know? If you think of a domino like, what else does this knock down? If we can fix this thing? What other things is this knocked down? And then we also look at ripple effects, which are more likely those things that are also happening in life and business. So if we fix this, what other areas of their life does it affect? Where other areas of their business does it affect and really understand the entire value of it.

And when you can understand the full value of it, whenever I do this exercise with clients, they immediately they’re like, “Wow, I’m really not charging enough”. And Like, “I know”. And so this is how we ended up getting them to usually out of the gate, double their rates, and then they go on to, to increase from there based on their experience and their testimonials, and really their confidence, which is what it comes down to.

Brynne Tillman  15:47

There’s an old story and I’m not going to get it right. But like Picasso is at a bar, and he’s drawing on a napkin, and some guy comes over and he’s like, “Oh, can I have that?” And he’s Yeah, 10 grand? Because yeah, what do you mean, It’s a napkin? It took you 30 seconds to draw that. And he’s like, It took me 25 years to be able to draw that in 30. Exactly. 

So I don’t know if I got that story. Right? Close enough. That’s exactly it. Yeah. So I love that. Now I sit back and I go, boy, I am really undercharging. I am uncomfortable having the money conversation with my prospects. It’s so much easier to just give them the lowest rate because I might close stuff more often. Like, What are the steps to raising your rates? What does that look like?

LaTisha Styles  16:38

So the first thing, if you already are working with clients who already have clients, the first thing I would do is go to your current clients, and ask them about their experience of working with you. So I would start by gathering what I call a brag book. So this is, you know, testimonials, conversations, all those things. 

So you can kind of start building up that confidence in what you do and what you offer. Then the second thing I would do is do a personal assessment of all of your experience, everything that you’ve done, and really go back to creating a fleshed out bio of who are you? What have you accomplished and really try to see yourself from the outside looking in. 

Then from there, once you have those things, then It’s just a matter of choosing the number. When you choose the number you have to detach from the fear that someone’s going to say no, you have to detach from the desperation. It’s simply this is what it is. 

And when you start putting it out there, you’ll start feeling more confident. And because you’ve done all the other exercises, you won’t want to go back because you’ll realize and recognize that you have been undercharging. And those are the first things that I would do.

Brynne Tillman  17:51

Interesting. But how would you start that conversation with that client?

LaTisha Styles  17:55

Well, you would just say the number?  

Brynne Tillman  17:58

Well, No, I mean, they don’t know that you’re raising your rates.

LaTisha Styles  18:00

Right. Okay. So if it’s an existing client versus new clients.

Brynne Tillman  18:04

Oh, Right, Right, Right. 

LaTisha Styles  18:05

Okay. All right. So if it’s an existing client, you have a couple of options, the first thing you can do is you can grandfather in your existing clients, and then move forward from there, that’s usually the easiest thing to do. And it’ll help you kind of, yeah, create that goodwill with your current clients. 

But if you decide that you do want to change the rates for your current clients, then I would suggest doing that once the contract is up for renewal, let them know, like, “Hey, these are the new rates, This is what I’m moving into and you know, I’m happy to give you a discount”. So I would still probably give them some sort of, you know, a thank you for being a client and you know, for believing in you, and that’s fine. 

So let’s say you were doubling your rates, maybe you only bumped theirs up by 20%, or something like that, there’s a lot of ways that you can do it, it’s really going to depend on if you want to just fully move forward with new clients and new rates, if you want to, you know, kind of hold on to that steady income that’s already coming in. 

It’s really just going to depend on you. But I love being grandfathered into a rate that I’ve already got at the start. So I probably would suggest that as well.

Brynne Tillman  19:10

So I like that’s what I do. And I’ll tell you though, my Invoicing is different. Okay, so what I’ll do is I’ll invoice with the new price, and then have their loyalty discount bring them back to their original price. So they know they’re getting that deal. Yeah. And then if they should leave and come back, they know what the new rate is. 

LaTisha Styles  19:31

Now they know exactly. That’s exactly it. Because they’re loyal. And you know, you’re giving back to them, But make sure that they know that

Brynne Tillman  19:42

Right. Yeah, yeah. So you know, For example, “I had one client that wanted three webinars for the price of two”. They’ve been with me for so many years. Yeah. So I’m okay, but the invoice just showed all three, one. So they have They’re pay for two and get one for free. They’re one of my biggest clients. I’m happy to do that. 

But I made sure they saw on the invoice that I was doing that. I love that that was the right way to do it because I was just guessing. Yeah. So there are a lot of salespeople that are introverts as extroverts, we’re probably extroverts, I can have a conversation with anyone about almost anything. 

Yeah, introverts struggle, even more than in the conversation preparing for that conversation like in their heads, Right? So what can an introvert do or know about selling that will help them get over the fear that introvert is holding them back.

LaTisha Styles  20:46

So the very first thing is to recognize that your introverted nature is your superpower. And the reason that I say that is “As Introverts we’re really good at thinking through our thoughts and processing them as we’re speaking”. And it’s such an important skill to have in sales, because you can pivot while someone’s talking and they’re explaining something to you. 

You’re not only listening to them, but you’re understanding okay, this is what they need. This is what I need to say about how I need to respond. So once we get in the conversation, and we recognize that it’s a sincere conversation, we’re great. However, at the start that heaviness of, Okay, I gotta have the conversation. 

So these are the things that I personally like to do. I really like to deal with energetics. And so even as I’m talking right now, you notice, like I’m moving my hands, this is me pumping myself up. And so when I get started, I will, you know, before I have a conversation, I’ll stretch, I’ll get my energy fields up, get my get my ambiance and my vibe up, I’ll stand up, I’ll walk around. 

Brynne Tillman  21:50

I really liked flowing.

LaTisha Styles  21:51

Exactly get it flowing. Whenever I had days of like back-to-back sales calls, I made sure to put in, you know, like 15-minute breaks. And I would literally turn on a song and Just Dance. Because dancing is something I enjoy. So you know, whatever gets your energy up, because you’re going to have to fill it every time. 

And just recognize that that’s what you’re going to have to do. You know, this is what we’re doing. This is what we signed up for. We chose to do it. You can choose to do anything else in your life. This is what you chose to do. 

So figure out what you need to do to amp up your energy, get that energy amped up, recognize that you are a super you have a superpower in sales, knock out those sales, do your social selling, and then serve your clients because that’s what you really want to do.

Brynne Tillman  22:36

I love that. All right, two more questions. The first one is how can content warm up that prospect to make the conversation easier?

LaTisha Styles  22:47

Oh. I love this, this is how I created my introverted friendly sales system because I wanted my content to warm up my ideal client. So exactly what I have mentioned before is creating content to engage them so they understand who you are creating that content where you can exchange value, and also explain like what you do, why it’s important. 

All those questions that you know, would normally bog you down on a sales call, let’s go ahead and get those knocked out inside of that video presentation. And then create that content to enroll them so that you don’t have to worry about okay, do I have to follow up now? It’s like, Well, you got your videos going, you got your ads going, like they’re seeing you everywhere. They know who you are. They like your energy. And you know, it’s that much easier to make that sale.

Brynne Tillman  23:29

I love that. So content should be a big piece of the follow up. It should be absolutely not just the top of the funnel, but all the way through to the sale. So I think absolutely, I think that’s great. Okay, My last question, What question did I ask you that I should have? 

LaTisha Styles  23:48

Oh, Yeah, I think you asked me all the questions, I would say. I don’t know. It kind of turned it around on me. Um, what would I share with someone who is scared to get started? Who feels like them? They have a lot to offer, but they just don’t really know how to talk about it.

Brynne Tillman  24:12

Okay, pretend I asked you that question.

LaTisha Styles  24:15

Okay, my answer to that question is, Number one, “You have to just start”. Because when you get started, you’ll get the ball rolling. And momentum is the most powerful thing that we have as business owners as entrepreneurs. It’s so much easier to get on a moving train than to try to start and push a boulder up a hill. 

So just get started. And secondly, “Understand that the way that you want to show up is the way that your ideal clients want to interact with you as well”. We’re all individuals. There’s people who are, you know, quirky and funny. There’s people who are chill and it’s like all of those personalities. There’s someone for you and there’s ideal clients for you.

Do you think about when we were in school as kids, there were certain kids that we gravitated towards. And those people, they’re still here. We’re just all adults now with bills. So that’s the only difference.

Brynne Tillman  25:11

I love that. There was an I can’t remember the book, which makes me sad. But it was on audio that we were listening to, I’m going to find it somewhere in my world. But the major lesson from it was, “If you spend more time thinking about doing something than actually doing it, You’ve betrayed yourself”. 

Yeah. So I hear, right, so if you’re sitting there going, should I do this? Should I not do this, you could have done it by now. Just do it. So I love that that’s your advice, because I and I do that with my kids like, okay, it’s, you know, garbage night. 

And if they’re sitting there thinking about an hour ago, garbage, it would have been done just right when, and then and you can feel good about it. So I love that advice. I love that advice. So as we wrap this up, I had so much fun, and I had so many little learning nuggets, and I’m excited about sharing with the audience how they can get in touch with you. 

LaTisha Styles  26:15

Yep. So the best way to get in touch with me is by going to latishastyles.com. So L- A-T-I-S-H-A S-T-Y-L-E-S.COM.  I’ve got all of my social media and all of my platforms and everything there. And I also have a free gift which I’ll share with you if you want to put a link in the show notes for those of you who do want to learn how to use your introverted nature as your superpower in order to make more sales.

Brynne Tillman  26:43

That’s great. And I had pulled up, Leticia.tv What is that?

LaTisha Styles  26:46

Yep, so that’s just another shorter, a shorter version. That’s still me. leticia.tv. And that actually links you out to all of my other websites as well.

Brynne Tillman  26:55

That’s awesome. Sorry, but throw that in. Yeah. So I had such fun. Thank you for all your golden nuggets. And I am very excited to hear the feedback from what people do to start transitioning the way that they’re using content to really attract the right people and love that. So guys, thanks for joining us again, don’t forget when you’re out and about to make your sales social.

Bob Woods  27:27

Thanks for listening and join us again for more special guest instructors bringing you marketing, sales, training, and social selling strategies that will set you apart. Don’t forget to subscribe to get the latest episodes from the Making Sales Social Podcast, Leave a review down below. Tell us what you think, What you learned and what you want to hear from us next. You can also listen to us on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play. Visit our website socialsaleslink.com. For more information.