Becoming the Number One Choice for Corporates

Please note this transcript is machine generated so it is not perfect and should be used for reference only, you will get the best from the podcast by listening to it in it's designed format.

Jen (00:09):
It's Jen Hall here, your business positioning coach and market leadership expert. And today is slightly different. We have a very special guest on the show. And it is Jessica Lorimer and she specializes in helping entrepreneurs sell to corporates. And she's been my sales coach now for a very long time. She has recently or not so recently. It feels recent to me, but it's definitely not. She pivoted to being really specific in what she wanted to help with. And in this episode she talks to us more about, you know, why she made that pivot to working more where she's, you know, made to help people. How she goes about that, but more so she talks to us about how to position yourself as the number one choice for corporate selling. So if you're someone who is looking to sell to corporates in the future, then definitely go and check her out.

Jen (01:08):
But make sure that you listen up in this episode because she gives so much gold as to how you can do that. And if you're somebody who already sells to corporates, then again, this will seriously help to ramp up your sales. She's fantastic. She's brilliant. And I can't wait for you to hear the interview that we had. Now a couple of things, dementia, the first thing about the interview, I sound like I'm talking into a toilet bowl. I have since found some amazing new software called TriCast, which has now enabled me to stop this ever happening again. I have to apologize. She sounds like a dream. I sound like I've stopped down a toilet, so I apologize. Nothing I can do such a great episode. It's worth so much. I was like, there's nowhere I could waste it. It still needs to go live.

Jen (01:58):
It still needs to get out there. And so in a moment I'm going to a lawn chair and just, you're just going to have to deal with my awful sounding echoey voice. I do apologize. The, the good thing is she's doing most of the talking during this episode, so, you know, you only have to listen to me for a few things. And just to let you know what's going on in the world of Jen right now. I've just been running some amazing elevate and evolve the strategy sessions for some incredible entrepreneurs to really help them look at different strategies and the way that they are selling right now in this Covid-19 pandemic. But also on that, I mean, we've just celebrated an amazing results. And I said, we've just celebrated, we're still raking in the money.

Jen (02:46):
We launched a campaign a few weeks ago and so far that campaign has brought in just over 220,000 pounds, which is just incredible. And I'm not sharing that to brag. I'm sharing to kind of spread the hope that people are still buying right now. People are absolutely still thinking about the after math of what's going on. And you know, they're looking forward to when this ends and they're also investing into things that are really gonna help them right now in this pandemic. So not just afterwards, but also now. So please don't be put off thinking that you know, the world has come to an end. You know, yes we are in a recession right now, but the proof is in the numbers. People are still buying. We're still selling. And what I'm doing on these sessions is helping you with your mindset around this and showing me some of the strategies that we've used that generate this kind of money on, on a regular basis.

Jen (03:41):
But also more to the point, the reason we make the kind of money that we make and the fact that that rise is year on year. As we kind of move through our business career, either reason that that happens is because we have put our name out there. We are a market leader in our field and that's why we end up making so much money. You couldn't put any strategy in place. You could have any special marketing campaign and yes, you will make money, you will make money. But the fact is, until you position yourself perfectly as a market leader in your industry, the one to go to, then you know you're never going to make the kind of money that you want to make. If you want to start dominating your market and lapping up the market share, you need to start positioning yourself as that, as that go to expert in your field because that will amplify any amount of money that you could ever make off of a strategy or a campaign both go hand in hand.

Jen (04:44):
And so that's the kind of the point I wanted to make before we launch into today's episode. And also to let you guys know that I had decided they all sold out. The ones that I created sold out really smart. They sold out. So they're selling out like hotcakes. And I'm realizing it's because people really want to learn how to do this stuff. And in this session it's an, it's an hour and a half of your time where you can come in and sit with just five other entrepreneurs to really find out how you can start positioning yourself as that number one choice in the market. The only remit is, is that there are 20 pounds, 20 pounds to get this amazing information and also the fact that you need to have been in business for more than a year and have been serving clients. So we need to make sure that you've got some sort of validated product in order to kind of take that up a notch.

Jen (05:31):
So do make sure that you click the link in the show notes so that you can become to one of those sessions. I don't know how long going to be running them for the guys. So if you are interested on jumping on one of these sessions, please do make sure that you do it quickly. Because you know, this won't listen, probably won't be something that lasts forever and we will see, I literally don't know. This is a very new thing that I'm doing and I'm trialing it out and like I said so far, I've had to reopen so many sessions cause each one keeps letting out each time. So be quick. And jump on this. If it's something that you want to learn, do you want to learn how to position yourself as that market leader and you want to hear about the kind of strategies and campaigns that we're using right now at the moment to generate huge amounts of money.

Jen (06:17):
Then do let me know, do you make sure that you book in using the link in the show notes? Anywho I also wanted to give someone a shout out. I did promise that it would be a shout out. Now I'm going to make a massive guess as to who left this. Because I love Google. Oh, sorry. Itunes, it reviews because it generally gives people a really quirky nickname. Normally that sometimes that we've given ourselves, you know, sometimes way back. And my sister reminded me of the time when I tried to get my first edit email address and it was something like Jen's 11 angels@topmail.com. And she said, I remember when you got that you were so angry. And the reason I'm so annoyed is because every email address I kept putting it in, kept getting denied.

Jen (07:02):
Like, Oh, it's taken, it's taken. So I put something really random in because I thought it was broken and then it stark. And so I was stopped with this really odd name that meant absolutely nothing evil. All 11 angels must be so meaningful. No, it's just some random words that I chopped in. Anyway, we've got this review from fierce gem or ass now I reckon, I reckon this is the amazing journalists Stowe, and I apologies if it's not Joe Misto. So you have to bring forth your true identity. If it's not by, I'm going to put money on the fact that this is Jeremy [inaudible] that wrote this lovely review. Go and check Joma out. She's amazing. She really helps with both organizations and individuals to put themselves out there for fearless self promotion, which is why I assume it is devastated because her nickname is fierce drama ass.

Jen (07:51):
She said this is a fantastic podcast. Jen always delivers huge amounts of value and you can implement that you can implement immediately. Being a market leader is so important for ambitious people with big visions. Jen you are awesome. Thank you so much. But even me, such a lovely review and so like I said I did a promised shoutouts and that's my first shout out. How amazing I think. I think it's my first shout out anyway and if you would like your own shout-outs and you'd like to make my day, you'd like to help this podcast really get into the ranks to get this. The messages I'm getting on here. If you're finding useful, let's get them out to more people. Let's help more people and by making my day with a lovely review and sharing all the goodness you are going to absolutely help, help the world spread the message.

Jen (08:36):
And you will also get an amazing shout out like she did anything. Right? Okay, I'm going to let the interview run because this is going to be really juicy. It's going to be super fantastic and I cannot wait for you to hear the gold that Jessica Lorimer has to share. You know, she's a seven figure sales coach. She knows what she's talking about and not even the fact that she's a seven figure coach. That's, that's amazing in itself, but more to the point, she is what I call a true leader. She leads with grace. She knows exactly what to say at every moment and time, and she's not a pushy sales coach. By that I mean she teaches sales without the sneeze. Everything just feels so effortless. It's like, you know, doing a deal with your friend except they're giving you loads of money. It's just beautiful to watch the way she does things. She's got boundaries. She is the queen in her niche and I absolutely adore her and I can't wait to share these words with you. So without further ado, I'm going to let the interview roll. Hello and welcome to this amazing episode of the Expert Unrivalled Podcast. I am so, so privileged to have my own personal sales coach on with us today. Jessica Lorimer.

Jessica (09:52):
I'm excited or that you have prefaced this with, it's going to be amazing. And I'm like, Oh my God.

Jen (09:57):
I always do. I always preface it with you because I know it always is going to be awesome. Jess tends to be my

Jen (10:06):
Fast pass it on, which is great cause she always sets everything like the bar really, really high. But everything else that happens. So yeah, I'm really excited to have her aboard today. It's going to be Epic. I'm really excited for, for two different reasons. One, because I know you're going to offer a ton of goals on this podcast episode, but also because I say recently that you kind of really niche down, but it feels recent, but it probably isn't. How long have you now been selling to corporates? Kind of exclusively.

Jessica (10:36):
So since June, 2019 is when we started the podcast, we won. At that point, we were only selling the event, which we'd never done before. So we'd never done a convecting corporates about it and I'd never publicly sold to entrepreneurs how sales corporates. So it's been from June, 2019. So what we now have eight months, which is a bit scary

Jen (11:03):
Is honestly, cause they do kind of what any feels like yesterday. But I guess this is what happens when you really start to embed a niche is that you've been so consistent with it over that period of time and you've gone really, really big with that message that, you know, that's all I kind of know you for now. But prior to that you know, you still are. My sales coach for me is as an entrepreneur I've seen that you've really been encouraging people to add a corporate revenue stream onto their business. Can you tell me a little bit more about that and why?

Jessica (11:40):
I mean, this has the potential to get ranty.

Jen (11:44):
Okay, well have a good runs.

Jessica (11:45):
Well, here's the thing. So you're for what, six years? I've been in business now in the online space and I was really fortunate, I built a really successful business really quickly in this space. And I would say that I'm one of the lucky few, you know, I'm, I'm somebody who came into the space relatively early, you know, bear in mind, I started my business in 2015 so there were different things going on. People had only just heard of Facebook groups then, right? So it was actually quite easy. And I remember some unfortunate person once likened the 2015 online sales market to being shot in a barrel like fishing. Oh wow.

Jessica (12:29):
But that's how it kind of was. You know, back in the day you could go into Facebook group and you could say something like in somebody else's Facebook group, he could be like, Oh, I've got this free optin on how to get your first ever client comment yes below and I'll private message it to you. And you get like these lists with thousands and thousands of comments. And I remember actually doing it the first time ever for myself and I had all these comments. I didn't have an automation set up and I had to manually add like 400 people. I wanted to kill myself. Like I was just, I was done with online marketing and you know, over the last few years what we've seen is that it's begun to get really saturated. And the majority of reason I kind of encourage people to add a corporate revenue stream is because what we're seeing is the market is saturated, but the market is also saturated with people who are not that good at what they claim to be good at.

Jessica (13:27):
And so that's causing a real problem for people who are genuinely qualified. Like you, like other clients that I have who have genuine skills, genuine qualifications, have really worked hard to hone the results that they can get their clients. And then they come into this online space. I'm honestly, it's like cockfighting and I mean by that chickens as opposed to... but it becomes really awful because you end up seeing these c primi qualify people who are great when they do having to lower their prices or they're hanging around in all these Facebook groups feeling really inadequate because people who are not as qualified as them or better at marketing, they're worse at delivery but the best at marketing. And that just really starts to get my goat. And I'm seeing the clients that I was working with in my mastermind and privately and we were adding corporate revenue streams to that business and it was taking off so much quicker and they were enjoying it more. And so I was like, no, it's great. Why don't we go all in on this? Why don't we show people, especially qualified people that actually they're really all companies out there who will pay you what you're genuinely worth and he will find you your expertise and not make you do some kind of weird song and dance about it for free online until they're convinced enough buy anything.

Jen (14:52):
Absolutely. And it's really interesting. It's sort of pick up on a few things that you kind of said that, especially around how things used to be. And this is why I love how you are and what you do so much because you genuinely move with the times because we were still seeing the same techniques that used to work being taught now and it's just not happening. So we're still seeing that same go into Facebook groups and posted these things and often put your opt in here and do the asada stuff. And you know, and actually I just want to kind of also say here that I'm not saying that doesn't work for every industry because there's always the exception to the rule, but on the whole, that kind of tactic isn't working anymore. And so what I love about what you teach is that you are genuinely looking at how you can adapt this, the sales skills that you teach others to help them get the results that they need. And I'm guessing part of this whole, I say pivot because you've just spoken about, you've got to, you've got an extensive you know, years of experience sending to corporates, but recently really niching down into it is part of that showing the action, having that added revenue stream that can get you a high cash injection into your business is obviously going to help you really sail through any kind of financial storms that you might be seeing as well.

Jessica (16:14):
100%. I mean, the thing about the online space, actually it's one of the reasons that I really admire what you teach around niching. When, when it was 2014, 2015, you didn't really have to have a niche. You could just look up and be like, Oh, I help women feel empowered. And that was it. And that was cool, right? And apparently then you are qualified to do whatever you're doing. And it's always interesting because there are people that I see who were really qualified in 2014, 2015 they were really good at things and they either went one of two ways, they're the kind of went like me and we bucked the trend together and we were like, right, what can we do? Let's sell that, let's sell it hard. Let's make a business that's profitable. Or they went the other way and they were told where your skills aren't relevant, you know. So I had a couple of really good business friends who did really interesting things like business continuity planning or you know, we're really into the leadership realm way before all of this stuff came out. And yet they were told by coaches, well, it's not really relevant because you're going to have to dumb it down for the base.

Jessica (17:28):
These are the people that you now see here were like, Oh my God, leadership, business continuity planning. And I'm like, Oh my God, you guys are crap. Okay. But that's why it's so important that people want trends and that they actually move with them. But you move where you're qualified to go. You don't just move the sake of, Oh well, you know, it looks like health coaching's on the outs. I'm going to go and be a business coach instead. Like there's no point in doing that. But you have to actually start looking at how can I safeguard my business against some of the things are happening. You know, and in The UK at the moment, we're in a very politically charged time. Thanks for that Brexit really appreciate actually it does mean that people should be looking at whether businesses are going and actually safeguarding the future of them and adding a corporate revenue stream. It will help that. It means that, you know, there are all these larger cash injections, but also that you have the opportunity to make your business what you want it to be. I think there's this very big common myth that running online business means laptop lifestyles by the beach, you know, doing all this stuff and I was feel really sorry for those people. I'm like, why the hell are you on holiday and working? But it's not enjoyable. You know?

Jen (18:45):
I don't get the sense that they, that's a 100% right Jess. And I think that's the thing is, you know, it is, I mean I'm not anti that kind of a marketing, but I am very much in the same way wave like did you, when I'm on holiday I don't, I really don't want to be working. It stuff has to be done. Absolutely. I will make time. But yeah, it's absolutely fun. If I'm away having a break then I win, then I want a break. And I think you've really inspired a healthier way of working with, you know, with me. You know, every, all your clients from, obviously you've been in a few of your masterminds, mine's as well. And I've really seen that in person, you know, one of your modules. But then I think it's like a program's evolved with to do with balance right? And I know this, obviously this comes from your own personal story around making sure you're having that kind of good work life balance. I know this is the story you've told many times before, but just very briefly, why is that so important to you?

Jessica (19:44):
So I, I came out of my corporate job. I always say to people I would've stayed in my corporate job forever. I loved it. I love what I did. I was one of those very rare people who perhaps didn't always like the environment that I was in, but I loved selling stuff and I loved getting paid really well and I loved being able to hang out with interesting clients. And in 2014 I was diagnosed with MH, which is myalgic and it's a chronic auto immune disease. Basically what it means is that you get whole host of ugly little symptoms like chronic fatigue and chronic pain. And I would be bedridden so weeks a time and I was just so couldn't move, totally lethargic. It was like your body kind of shuts down and goes into hibernation mode. And it was really quite serious.

Jessica (20:32):
And my doctor said to me, well, you know, it's either you accept that you're going to be wheelchair bound by the time you're 35 or you have to really start looking after your lifestyle and you have to stop working as hard. You have to get rid of the job and actually do something that you can manage with the kind of limited physical capability that you have. And I mean obviously setting up a business is not the least stressful thing. So said that guys, I remember going into work and I said this to my boss and he was like, well we don't have the capacity for you to go part time. Like you're not a parent. And, and so it's, it's not something that we really offer. Flexible working was not a thing. And so he said, well, you know, you kind of got three months and then that's it. And so I used that to build my business. I like to be really fortunate. I've not had an attack since. Like I left my middle all by starting my business and I've not had an attack where I've been so severely ill in years.

Jen (21:33):
That's amazing. I would receive anybody that was to do with the kind of boundaries you set yourself with things like when I'm taking holiday, I'm taking holiday.

Jessica (21:40):
Yeah, 100% I mean people think that you know they're getting downtime. They're like, Oh but it's okay cause I'm just going to hold them and do a little Instagram story. I'm going to do whatever that the cool thing is now and the reality is that you're not then actually resting. You're not stepping away from your audience and that's bought on two levels. It's bad for your own energy because you can never step away from work so you can never get clear-headed. You can never get creative. But also it's really bad for your audience because it creates this really old codependent effect where you all setting a really bad example for them. Everybody's entitled to a private life. Everyone's entitled to rest. Everyone's entitled to have a holiday without feeling guilty. And what we're actually seeing is people like promoting, you can have the life and the business you want, but they're working like 18 hours a day and never switched off. They never go on holiday. And every single little thing they do in that life is a content marketing scheme. You know, it just doesn't work.

Jen (22:41):
Yeah. And I thought so. And even like when you're posting an Instagram story, I'm sorry, you then looking at who's like to use again, you're going back engaging on the comments and it's needs a never ending story. And I think the that you need to, you need to, we need to pull right in a little bit and put these boundaries in place. What you've done is brilliant and it's Testament to, they make the healthy had sense. Bringing it back to corporates again so for those people, cause obviously you're quite right, you know we talked on this podcast around being feed in a feeling and being qualified to do, to do what you do. But for those looking to add a corporate revenue stream, what are corporates looking for? Can you Chuck some ideas? At us in terms of people listening, thinking it can. So how can I ask that in constraints my business. Can you give me examples of how that works?

Jessica (23:30):
Yeah, totally. I think the first thing to say there is that if you're sort of person who are questioning, am I qualified? It's quite likely that you are the people who are not self aware enough to question whether I'm a qualified or the people who should not be going out most likely and selling that thing. So the kind of first fear overcome. I guess the second thing is corporates looking for anything and actually more things in all honesty than the online spaces. You know, they're looking to run wellbeing initiatives. Lots of corporate companies are focusing on wellbeing, mental health, making sure the employees are happy and safe and well because that increases productivity. So I always say to people, you know, when you're selling to corporates, you've got to remember the corporates are focused on three things. They're focused on productivity. Can they make their staff more productive or their processes more productive that focused on profitability?

Jessica (24:22):
Can they help their companies make more money in some way, shape or form? And then they're focused on reputation. Can they build a better brand reputation or can they overcome an obstacle that they faced? So if you are running a service that has a transmission related to any of those, whether it's wellbeing, whether it's finance rated, marketing strategy, sales strategy, business development, mental health awareness, you know, one of my clients, she sells medical training to organizations. Another one is looking at fertility and impotency within organizations and supporting people who are going through that. Within organizations, you can sell anything you want to a corporate as long as you're able to tie it back to whether it's going to make them more productive, more profitable, or give them a better reputation in the market.

Jen (25:11):
Amazing. And obviously I'm putting words into your mouth here. We are niching in, in each of these elements where you're tying it back to, it's about going really deep into something specific that helps one of those outcomes.

Jessica (25:23):
100%. I mean the people who do not do well when they're selling to corporate, are the people who refuse to niche. You know, I always say to people when you're selling to a corporate, you need to niche down in terms of your discipline. So in terms of what you are actually going to provide. So I would provide sales skills. You might go in and provide, you know, personal branding skills for example. But you also need to niche down in terms of the industry that you want to work with. You know, whether it's financial services, professional services, consultancy, you know, there are lots and lots of different types of businesses out there. And it's really important that people do niche. Because then you get to know the specialist topics that organizations are talking about. You get to identify trends, you get to know who's who. You're able to make recommendations and referrals based on the insights that you're actually seeing.

Jessica (26:13):
And you're having much more interesting conversations. You know, niching is one of these things that I think people talk about and they think that they've done because they've got one-liner statement. But actually they don't always commit to it. And, and you know, we all know that if you're not really massively committed to your niche, it's never going to pay off for you. And that's particularly prevalent when you're selling to corporates because they won't be specialists in that area. They don't just want any old random person off the street. They want the person that understands their industry, their problems and the way to solve them.

Jen (26:48):
Absolutely. I will say think from, from feeling qualified perspective. As soon as you choose that niche, whether it's the corporates or not, you are able to really dive into that specific area, which instantly makes you feel 100% more prepared to have those interesting and deeper level conversations with your clients.

Jessica (27:07):
That's the thing. I mean, this is what you, you teach is helping people become that market leader. Well, you don't get to be the market leader unless you are the person who is confident enough and competent enough with your niche. Unless you're able to understand what the trends are, predict them, you know, share insights, be provoking the, the conversations and elevating the conversations that are happening around your specialism. And that's what you help people to do. So. Well, you know, I think a lot of people assume that a niche is, Oh well I've picked the topic that I like this week and off I go. Yup. And that's not it. You know, there's a certain degree of being aware of what is going to need, make your niche most profitable, but also the time and the energy that goes into actually understanding how you can position yourself as that thought leader within that space. And how you can do that really quickly if you commit to it. If you understand where you're actually going,

Jen (28:08):
Absolutely, it's all about the commitment to it. And you'll say, right, if you don't do that, then you know, you might be initially in your head, but to everyone else, you're still that generalist and that just, that just doesn't work.

Jen (29:12):
I remember one of the biggest things that really sticks out for me, probably because of what I do, what the tiny goes to tender. You've already lost the race. And so and so in terms of that, and by the way, that's just one golden nugget out of the hundreds that was, it's a little bit of that event. So if you're looking corporates, you have to be that just as a, as a, as a side note. But in terms of positioning them, positioning yourself as that number one choice and getting

Jen (29:42):
In there beyond everybody else. What a corporates looking for in terms of that, what kind of things can people do?

Jessica (29:49):
It's so interesting and I think in all honesty it's very similar to how the online marketing space works. Think about it this way, before you decide on a coach, you already know who you want to coach with. You've seen that content, you've seen examples of what they do. Perhaps you've even seen examples of some of the results that they've gotten. And so actually when you get that sales call, it's a question of all the finances, right? And is the time right? It's not really a question of sell me your services or it shouldn't be. You know, and if you are having those conversations where it's like, well, justify to me why I should work with you, then you're not having sales conversations. You're not positioning yourself well enough.

Jessica (30:26):
Early on when you come to sell to corporates, it's very, very seminar. By the time a job is advertised or a contract is advertised or tender is placed, but you've already lost because somebody else has already had the conversations with a stakeholder that said, what are the problems you're currently experiencing? What's going on in your team right now? What could we be helping you with? And together they've come up with an idea and in an ideal world or in the world that we're in really 90% of the time, that person who has had that conversation who is already niche down, who's already done the business development, who's already seeded the idea that there are issues and that they can help solve them is going to win that tender because they are the person who's controlled that conversation. They've staffed a bit, they've controlled it and they've seen it end to end.

Jessica (31:17):
The person who jumps in like 90% of the way through when it gets to tender and they go, Oh well I'm going to put in a bid for that now. Well, you aren't relevant. You don't know the background. You unless you start going backwards and having conversations with stakeholders who by this time have already had those, chances are they don't want to have them again. They don't want to explain all the details again. It's very, very hard to catch up. And this is the thing, it's about being early. It's about taking control of your sales process and ultimately being that being that leader in your space, whether that's proactively where you are going to organizations and saying, Hey look, this is what I do. This is who I am. This is how I can help you. Oh, whether it's reacting, because over time you become the person that corporates are coming to you and saying, well, we've heard that you work with this company.

Jessica (32:08):
And it went really well. How could we do that? You know? And that's very, very similar to the online space. But it's like, again, it's, it's the work that you do. If people don't do the messaging and the positioning work, you're never going to get leads coming to you. You know? And you have to choose how you want to do it. You either do it proactively or reactively and in some cases at the beginning, there's this attitude that people have whether like, well, I want people to come to me and say, Oh, you must, I must work with you at the beginning. A lot of it is proactive. It's you having to go out there and do the work. And if you're not willing to do that, then unfortunately it's going to be very hard for you. You know, you have to be doing the activities that position you as that leader.

Jen (32:47):
100% I like that. You should just take the next question out of my mouth, which was do you believe that, you know, we should be being more proactive and I think that you are right. And I think that really transfers across the board. And that's something that, you know, because I'm massively into my marketing, I like, you know, we truly believe that the more you put into your marketing, the easier the sale will be. On the other hand, something that you really taught me from the word when we started working together was to be more proactive for the sales start the conversations. And you know, that's something that you're continually teaching me as well. And it's something I think we all need to get better at doing because we can all be very British at times, you know, wherever you go from [inaudible] British or too sad or whatever it is to do that. And I think that what you teach people to do is brilliant because it really pushes you outside your compensation to get more proactive and really put yourself out there and start asking for their sales. So can you tell us a bit about whether you are allowed to or however you want to position it. How does a bit about your most successful clients and why they are so successful?

Jessica (34:00):
So I think it's really interesting. Max is snoring by the way. If everyone who's not aware, I have a traveler that likes to sit underneath the microphone and snort.

Jen (34:16):
Oh, I was going to put that in the intro. You know, just to warm people. Just by the way, just as a random side note here, there was a time where I was listening to Jess webinar, I'm like thought she broken wins. I seriously just thought that happened. I was like, wow, she really doesn't care. She's just does it. And so I realized that she was her dog snoring. Like anyone thinking that Jess is just like wow, like, and then she's so open.

Jessica (34:43):
I think it's really interesting. Lots of people have been very successful saying school press. And I think there were probably for me three highlights, I would say. One of them is a lady called Julie Dennis. I talk about Julie all the time, so her is must be permanently burning. But Julie came to me in 2018 January, 2018 and she openly said, she was like, Jess, I hate my business and I love Julie. There are many things I love about her. One is hello for alcohol and the other inappropriate levels of alcoves. I preface that. But the other is the fact that she is incredibly direct and she had a couple of years building a Facebook group which had over a thousand members.

Jessica (35:41):
She was regularly talking to individuals about menopause coaching and she built a business that just wasn't, it wasn't sustaining her, it wasn't fulfilling her at all because ultimately as with anything, there was always a tendency to my own. But particularly with health and wellbeing issues, you know, you've got all people who just want to vent about their issue but not necessarily change it. And so in January, 2018 we worked together for six weeks and we tend to business round. She trusted me implicitly luckily and we got rid of her Facebook group and we focused her services to selling to corporates and within eight weeks she'd signed her first corporate client. I mean we're now 2020 and she's fully booked out until the end of this quarter. She has chaired and facilitated panel discussions or medicals, the house of nods, you know, she was talking about the menopause and training companies how to become better at communicating around the menopause when it wasn't a hot topic and that's the thing.

Jessica (36:41):
Julie made it a hot topic. She was out that she was doing the business settlement, she was starting the conversation, she was writing the articles, she was getting featured and so all these people who then started later on getting on the bandwagon would exactly that. They weren't the original and so now gets lots and lots of referrals and steady business because she is known for being the lead in that space. She made it a hot button topic and she is able then to run a really successful business off the back of that. Also, Julie took like seven holidays last year. So you know, when we talk about flexible businesses, she was off, she went to Vegas, she did skiing. She was, yeah, she's just come back again. Like she's somebody who really for me epitomizes work life balance, who's added that corporate revenue stream to her business has made it a primary revenue stream and has become the leader in her space. And I think that's so impressive. Andy is another one from my mastermind. Andy is adorable. He's, he's just one of the nice like mental planet. I mean, it must be something about the name Andy because your other half is Andy.

Jessica (37:49):
Andy is possibly like the sunniest personality at night. And he came to the mastermind last year. He was he just set up his own consultancy business. He works with talent development professionals to increase employee engagement and talent retention. And development and just some really, really interesting things. And he really stepped up last year to create community around his, his corporate sales strategy and he created a conference called the talent development think tank conference. It was supposed to be held in October, 2019 and due to the wildfires in Sonoma County and California, it had to be postponed. The hotel was evacuated and I have never seen anyone react so calmly to the news.

Jessica (38:43):
We'll just have to hold it another time. No worries. And like he's really, really positive about it and he has the holding really successful. Then it's January with over 120 talent development professionals from all around the globe. He came to see some incredible speakers and he just had his most successful month in business ever multi-six figure sales month, which was pretty huge. We all were very excited about that. And that is that off the back of the events off of the back of the work that he was putting into business development in Q4 of 2019 and off the back of the stuff that's coming from the back of the event is ridiculous. Andy actually emailed me this morning and he's going to be very busy on me for the rest. I was just like, okay, well make sure you put in some downtime because you're going to need to just relax a little bit.

Jessica (39:37):
So that's very exciting. And then you know, and I will put it out here, Andy has a background in corporate. Julie did not, she had never sold to corporates before. Andy had the in previous roles. And then finally we have Becky Stratford who came to the conveying corporates event in November. She's now part of my CC program, which is very exciting. And she, I mean the C-suites put in to perspective, you guys opened on the 6th of January. So that's when people got access to the materials and things and she's done more business development in that like month than she'd done ever before. She has been connecting with and having conversations with some of the world's leading charities and not for profits around technology, change her businesses all around change technology, helping a nonprofit organizations implement new software initiatives and technology change within the business. And she's already submitting huge proposals.

Jessica (40:39):
You know, she's showing up everyday, she's doing the work and it's really, really taking off. So I think, you know, there are so many people I could mention, but those are the three I think that give a really good flavor of ideas. How quickly or slowly you can go, whether you really need to know anything about corporates or selling to them beforehand. And I mean really it's about the niche. If you look all of them, the reason they're so successful is because what they do is so specific and they do it with such specific organizations that it's so much easier for them to become the referral in their space for them to become the thought leader. I mean, Andy has two podcasts. Becky is, you know, really dominating this, not for profit space. Julius is so focused on making menopause this mainstream conversation. And without those niches it would be so hard to go out there and really rock rock their own platforms

Jen (41:36):
A hundred percent and I think this whole thing, this is a specializing is all about the foundation and positioning and it's what a lot of people miss when they think positioning of the things seem to pop into their heads first. The credibility building pieces and actually it's it's, it's the bedrock of what you do that positions you first and foremost the integrity behind what you do positions you and you know if we look at the, you know the examples you've just given there, that has been a really got you said, a really strong strain through the three of them plus the fact that they're being proactive plus the fact that once you're being proactive, what are the other things are wanting to add is that people are then going to then going to look at your profiles, check you out, you need to have positioned yourself in terms of the content you're putting out there, the articles that you're writing, the things that you're doing and what you're putting out there in terms of visibility. Is very important because people are savvy and corporates are savvy and they're not just going to go with any person that just pops into their inbox. They want to do that groundwork and say you need to make sure that you prepares, you know, what you look like on the outside just as much as you have done on the inside. I think

Jessica (42:46):
Mostly the, I think people underestimate what a lot of work is. I mean people said to me at the end of last year, Oh my goodness, it must have been so easy for you to turn your business around and sell something else cause you already had this audience. And I laughed when people used to that to me cause I'd be like, well it's really funny because once I decided on this new niche fund built up this audience of what, 20,000 people who all knew me for something completely different. And so when we released the first ever app, state of Sally's corporates, the podcast, I didn't promote it. I didn't do anything with my audience. I wanted to see what we could get organically. And we had 124 lessons in our first month. There was onuses table and they think of my other podcast and I was like, Oh my God, we've got all these thousands of lessons and then here we are with 124 and it was just a little, it was terrifying.

Jessica (43:37):
Absolutely terrifying because I was going to have to rebuild right from the beginning, you know? And that is what you have to do and people really worry about that. So that's why people make the big mistake. They go into the PR activities, they jumped straight into, Oh my God, I'm going to market the crap out of it for I really know what I did. Yeah, I didn't. I sat back and I was like, right, okay, what do I want to be known for? What? What am I actually selling here? Who do I really want to work with? And what through all of the foundational pieces that we often skip past, because we think we're too good for them, we think we're too big for them or whatever. And I worked through the things that you talk about with your clients. What is your UMB, you know, what is it that you really want to be known for?

Jessica (44:20):
And so, you know, skip forward a few months to the corporates event. We'd sold out I think 73 tickets, which was really cool. And we had a number of virtual attendees was awesome. And we're now in March, no February, sorry, I'm skipping for what I had at months. And the sellings corporates arm of my business has done generated about 150,000 pounds worth of revenue in eight months is pretty huge. But I credit that entirely to doing that foundational work and actually working to understand what it was about that niche, about, you know, who those ideal clients were and that those foundational pieces that men, it was able to take off so quickly and I could become the market leader.

Jen (45:11):
And I think the fact that you've been saying niche as well, cause you know, talk about, talk to us about the conversion rates. You know, the small amount of listens that you had, can you make something crazy, you know, in the first launch?

Jessica (45:25):
Yeah. So we, we were getting literally between 124 and 215 lessons per episode. So, and yet the conversion rate if there's two people actually purchasing tickets or sending to corporates was ridiculous. And in the end it worked out that 23,000 pounds worth of the tickets that had been bought from people who attended the corporates event had come from listeners to the podcast and something that had less than 500 listens a month. We generated a bit 23,000 pounds, you know, and that's huge. You know, so when people say to me, Oh, well, you know, Oh, I've gone into this new business area and it doesn't work well perhaps you need to look at the foundational pieces again, perhaps checks. You need to go back and look at what is my need, how am I establishing myself as the market leader? And not necessarily thinking, how can I go and do all the sexy marketing activities without knowing? Because if you don't know, you're never going to be able to convince anybody else that you do.

Jen (46:25):
On that bombshell. I love how this just ended that on that amazing line. Just want to say on a season's been a brilliant app. Say thank you so much for coming on here and let me drill you with all your goals. It's been incredible. So there's going to be a lot for people, I know one of my listeners recently said they had to stop at the side of the road and grab a notepad and pen. I think this is going to be happiness. Will, they'd be crushes later. The shot, somebody stopping, grabbing the night pass out. It's being amazing. Before we end, say, how do people find you? And I think you have a special gift for those, those people who are looking to sell to corporates. Can you tell us a bit about that?

Jessica (47:06):
Yeah, we do. So if you want to sell corporates, then you can go and check out my podcast called Selling to Corporate on Apple. It's on iTunes, it's on Stitcher. It's on all the major what sets out there including Spotify, which I didn't realize until recently when I said my name and it just popped up. So you can check that out there and if you are interested in selling to corporates, you can also download, I'll give Jen the link to the top five business development questions that I teach my private clients so that they can ask better questions to corporations and actually sign more business.

Jen (47:43):
Amazing. And I'll make sure all of those links are in the show notes as well. You said to go in there and grab that. Thank you so much for coming on Jess. It's been an absolute pleasure yet again. Let's see what else I can rape you in for. It's a pleasure. I want to say thank you so much and we'll chat again soon. I'm sure.

Jessica (48:02):
I really, really appreciate it. Thank you for having me on. And again, like for people who are listening, do bear in mind like you might not be interested in sell corporates and I'm totally cool about that. But if you all listening to this podcast and you're thinking that you might want to be working on your UMB or that you might want to position yourself as the market leader, this is my opportunity to really pimp Jen out. If you are thinking about working about, about working with her and you're not currently, you absolutely should be because one of my goals for this year is to get power prices up at the end of Q.

Jen (48:39):
They just very quickly as well around the UNB magic bullet, which is your concrete USP. That is all the corporates love, right? They love formula.

Jessica (48:50):
They do. You know, everybody wants something tangible. I think whether you want to be successful in the online marketing space or you want to be successful selling to corporates, if you don't have a concrete USP, that is something that somebody can genuinely understand immediately and simply and that gives them that clear transformation. You're not going to be able to sell anything. So before we embark on marketing journeys and Facebook ads and take videos and whatever sexy stuff is out there at the moment, you must be making sure that you have those foundational pieces. Otherwise you won't be able to sell premium offers to anyone regardless of the money that you made.