Surprising Sales & Marketing Secrets From An Ex-Stripper with Erika Lyremark

0:02Who's ready to rock today, Fire Nation? JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, brought to you by the HubSpot. podcast network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like Success Story Podcast. Today, we'll be breaking down surprising sales and marketing secrets from an ex-stripper. To drop these value bombs, I brought Erica Lira Mark and the EO Fire Studios. Erica, author of Think Like a Stripper, Business Lessons to Up Your Confidence, Attract More Clients, and Rule Your Marketing, mixes business coaching with personal branding at the Daily Whip. In today's Fire Nation, we'll talk about creating a product or service that virtually sells itself.

0:41We'll talk about why you should not be using sales scripts and turning objections and resistance into sales gold. Creating a marketing plan we'll never get bored of and so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Erica and our sponsors. DTC Pod, hosted by Ramon Berrios and Blaine Bolas, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. DTC Pod is a podcast about all things direct to consumer. Ramon and Blaine cover everything from starting, growing, and optimizing e-commerce stores in DTC brands. If you're interested in the stories behind your favorite consumer brands, this podcast is for you.

1:18One recent episode on how the best brands are built is a must listen. Listen to DTC Pod wherever you get your podcasts. Erica, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with? Hello, everybody. I'm super excited to be here. I was on your podcast 11 years ago, I believe. So it's really fun to be invited back. And something that I believe about success that most people would disagree with is I really, truly believe that success is 10 % logic and 90 % magic. And what I mean by that is you have to know the basics of every business that you're in.

2:05You have to know the ins, you have to know the outs, you have to know what's required of you. And beyond that, it's all about creation. It's all about energy. It's all about imaginations. It's all about being innovative. And you still have to, have those basic business basics nailed down and execute them very well. Coming on your podcast, I'm so impressed by how organized your team is. I don't think I've ever seen a team more organized than you, but what happens on this podcast, this conversation between you and I, this is where the magic is happening. Magic is happening in Fire Nation. December 26, 2013, we gave you a little late Christmas gift with Erica on the show.

2:53So yeah, it's been 10 and a half plus years. And I mean, man, so fun to get back on the mic and chat about the surprising sales and marketing secrets from an ex-stripper. And we don't just talk about the known ingredients on Entrepreneurs on Fire, Erica. We talk about the unknown. So what is the unknown missing ingredient to getting more sales? The unknown missing ingredient to getting more sales is that you don't need more confidence in yourself as a person. I've been coaching entrepreneurs for 20 plus years now, and it's been very rare that I've met an entrepreneur that already didn't have a kind of like extraordinary confidence because I believe to be an entrepreneur, you already have to have a level of confidence that most people don't have.

3:48But what you need to getting more sales is to have product confidence. And what I mean by that is you have to really understand your product or service. And where I find most people, most entrepreneurs struggle with this is with service-based entrepreneurs, because they're selling something that is intangible. and let's say that you were selling, let's say that you were a skincare entrepreneur and you were selling a face cream, you would know the ingredients in that face cream. You would know why you were packaging it in the way that you were packaging it. You would understand the formulations.

4:26You would understand what was missing from the marketplace. You'd really understand why you created this specific kind of moisturizer where an entrepreneur in a service-based business, a lot of times they just want to help people, right? They just have such a huge giving heart and they really want to help people, but they haven't taken the time to understand what exactly they are selling. So you have to really understand what you're selling. You have to be able to describe that in a tangible way. So even though it's an intangible service, you have to be able to describe it in a way that feels very tangible to the person on the other side of that sales conversation.

5:07Now, something that a lot of people don't want to hear, but it's just the truth, is that if you don't make the sale now, there's a pretty decent to high likelihood you're just not going to make the sale, period. Like when people say, you know, let me get back to you on that. Let me go talk to somebody. It's probably just not going to happen, Fire Nation. So Erica, let's talk about the secret to making our customers wanting our offer now, not later. So this goes back to a little bit what I said about developing this product confidence. And that's the unmistakable knowledge that what you do matters and has a huge impact on people's lives, your customers' lives.

5:45And so if you have a service-based business, you have to design that service as a product. You have to be able to imagine that it's sitting on a shelf in a little box with a cute little red ribbon around it so you can present what you're selling as if it were a product that people can look at it they can really think about it from a product like it like it was an actual physical product that you were giving them and that is going to set you light years apart from your competition because I guarantee you the majority of service-based entrepreneurs are not doing this and now if you have a product on the other side you need to design it as a service so that you are not just selling a product, right?

6:31You're giving them, you're giving them something beyond this. You're helping them with something with their life. So for example, I have a client who designs tennis dresses and she plays doubles tennis. So for those of you who are not familiar with doubles tennis, it's a lot of, you know, it's, it's really, well, the kind of doubles tennis that she plays, it's about friends getting together. And most of the People already know each other and they're really there to have a good time. Like she's not there to compete. She's really just out there to play tennis with her girlfriends. But then after that, she wants to go to lunch.

7:05She wants to go have cocktails after she's played tennis. And she doesn't want to have to go to lunch in these like boxy, very sports like tennis dresses, tennis apparel. So what she did is she designed these beautiful tennis dresses so that you could wear these dresses on the court and then you could go to cocktails and you would be just as cute in your outfit. So she's designed for a community of women who love to play doubles tennis and then love to go to lunch or love to go have cocktails after they're done playing tennis and they don't have to change from what they're wearing. So she's really designing this as a service, creating a community beyond, hey, you need a tennis outfit.

7:43Here's a tennis outfit that you can wear. So really thinking about how you can, again, as a service-based business, design it as a product so people can get a sense of physicality to it. And then if you have a product-based business, design it as a service so it goes beyond just the product that you're selling. Sounds like she needs to get down here to Palmas Del Mar, Puerto Rico, because I'll tell you, we have quite the tennis community down here. 20 tennis courts, six pickleball courts. She probably could be flexing over in the pickleball scene as well for that too. She does that as well. And her company is called Love Love Tennis and she has a boutique in Beverly Hills.

8:24That's right two blocks from the Chanel flagship store if anybody wants to go check her out. She is out there for sure. Nice. Now, Erica, we all want a product or a service that virtually sells itself. So take us through the process of what we need to do to create one. So what I've discovered, I've reviewed thousands of products and services over the years. And what I have found is that people try to pack everything but the kitchen sink into that product or service. So what's obvious to us is obvious to us. We've been in our businesses for years. We've done so much research and design and development behind these products and services.

9:05But when it comes to the consumer out there in the marketplace, we have to remember that we are competing against hundreds of other competitors, depending on what the marketplace you're in. It could be thousands of competitors. And so you want to make your product or service as easy to understand as possible and simplicity sells. So something that I tell my clients who have service-based businesses is that when you are designing a product or service, you want to pick the three to seven components that every client who comes to work with you must master or they must get that out of working with you.

9:47So for an example, I have an accountability program called the Morning Whip. And the basics of this program is you come in, it's three weeks long, and you make one bold move a week for three weeks. That's the core essence of the program. It's very easy to understand what that program is. and if you have um we'll go back to my friend who does the the the tennis dresses right um she looked at what other people were creating in the marketplace and she decided that she was only going to design tennis clothing that had a stretchy component to the fabric right because she wanted the fabric to be able to like wash and wear a situation you throw it into the washing machine at night, you line dry it, you put it on the hanger, and then in the morning, it's dry, and it's ready to go.

10:40So it's very clear for a consumer to think about their very busy lifestyle. And for a lot of people, they don't want to spend the time, they don't want to have to do any ironing, they don't want to have to, you know, have any special laundry for an item of clothing that they're going to get sweaty in every time they're wearing it. So you want your, whatever you're creating to be as simple as possible. So think about what are the absolute essentials for every product or service you are creating? What are the absolute essentials? And then cut out everything else and either put that into a different product or service or eliminate it altogether.

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12:26Visit HubSpot.com slash marketers to learn more. Erica, we're back. And one thing that you don't believe in is sales scripts. A lot of people live by them, die by them. You don't even believe in them. So what the heck should we be doing instead? Well, this goes back to really understanding the product or service that you're selling. And I find that most people use sales scripts when they don't really understand the product or service that they are selling. So that's the first step. You have to design your product as a service and design your service as a product. You have to get rid of all of the fluff, cut out anything that does not serve an immediate purpose to that product or service.

13:08And then the other thing is that if you are selling a product for the very first time, I do believe that there's a learning curve. Even if you are a really experienced salesperson, there's going to be a learning curve because you don't know. There's always going to be objections that people have that you could have never thought of. And you're only going to learn these through having conversations with people. So I always encourage my clients to come in, you know, really understand what your product or service is about. really understand the typical objections that people have, and then really come in from understanding where that customer is struggling.

13:47Like, rather than saying like, oh, you know, if I walk into a clothing store, and they say, oh, this is the latest trend, or this is the latest style, I would really love to be approached with, wow, I see you are wearing, you know, a monochromatic outfit, you probably are somewhat of a minimalist in the way that you that the way that you dress and that would be a correct observation so then I would want them to point me in the direction of like where are the more simplistic minimalistic designs that they have in the store rather than jumping on me and telling me what the latest trend is like really understanding who I am as a as a buyer and every everything that you're selling each customer that you talk to they're going to be a little bit different than the last customer so always come in with understanding where is that customer in their journey right now.

14:41And then you can come in and you can talk about how your product or service could help that person and really come in knowing that this is a relationship that you're building. And I also believe that if you don't get the sale on the first time, there is definitely potential for you to get the sale if you follow up with that person and say, hey, you know what? I thought about our conversation that we had and I realized I did not tell you about this one thing about my product or service. If they don't answer you, come back again, come back again. Follow-up is a great way. If you don't nail it on that first sales conversation, there is still potential for you to close that sale.

15:20Now, one thing that I admire about you is that you've discovered how to turn objections and customer resistance into sales gold. So how the heck do we accomplish that? So when you are thinking about designing your product or service, you have to design with objections in mind. So you could just simply ask yourself, why might people object to this? And it's usually, you know, the common objections are time, money, and energy. And most times and others, it's, you know, if you have a service based business, it's usually not a financial objection. It's usually a time or energy objection, right? And this is why you have to design your service-based businesses and make it so easy on the consumer, on your customer, to be able to get the results that you have built into your product or service.

16:12And this is why Simple Sells. Because if someone can look at your product or service and say, you know what, I don't have a lot of time or energy, but wow, they have made this so easy for me. I think that I can fit this into my calendar. or if you have a product-based business, you know, one of the things that you can think about is like a lot of people's objections would be buyer's remorse. So one of the things that I do whenever I'm purchasing something, I always ask, what's your return policy? Not that I'm planning on buying something and then returning it, but, you know, there is a difference when you're buying something in a store.

16:46A lot of times it's an impulse decision and I want to be able to go home and really think through, So, you know, I want to test out the product. I want to test out the product. If it's clothing, I want to try it on. I want to try it on with different shoes. If it's like sunglasses, I've been buying a lot of sunglasses lately. I always ask, you know, what is your return policy? And so I do believe that you have to design your products and services and your marketing strategy and your customer service plan with objections in mind. And again, for most people, the objections are going to be time, money, and energy.

17:19with a product-based business, if you are really clear of what your return policy is, you make it easy for the customer to do a return, that's gonna guarantee a lot more confidence in their purchasing power. Fire Nation, turn that resistance, turn those objections into sales gold. And now let's be honest, Erica, I think a lot of people get bored with what they do on a day-to-day basis. So the dream is to create a marketing plan that we'll never get bored of. How the heck do we do this? So when you think about designing your product or service, it's important to think of, again, all the components of it, but I want you to think beyond that.

18:02I want you to think about what your life is like if you are marketing this product or service. And I always say, you know, great marketing is saying the same message, you know a hundred different ways 10 ,000 different times and so you have to really think through like if I have to be selling this 10 years from now can I see myself getting excited about the message of this product or service 10 years from now if you can't see that then you have to go back to the drawing board and you have to think through your product or service and think what would make me so excited to talk about this same message, you know, a hundred different ways and deliver it 10 ,000 different times.

18:49So think about the message that you are really living. And this is where I was talking about, you know, designing your product as a service is extremely important because it goes on because beyond that transactional selling. And if you design your service as a product, then it's always going to be fun and easy for you to demonstrate it. So going back to my client and friend Adeline, who has the tennis apparel company, Love Love Tennis. So she wanted to not only design these beautiful, beautiful tennis dresses, she added in leggings and skirts and tops. And now she does tennis jewelry, high-end tennis jewelry, like gold and diamonds.

19:29Because she loves playing tennis so much. And she actually wanted to design a company that would allow her to play tennis every single day and basically get paid for it. So when she goes to play tennis, again, she lives in Beverly Hills or there's tennis going around 365 days a year. She shows up for her tennis matches and she's basically a walking advertisement for what she sells. And people constantly ask her, where did you get that outfit? Where did you get that necklace? Who makes that? And all she has to say, love, love tennis, and directs them to her store, directs them to her e-commerce store on the internet.

20:09So it's very easy for her to live her message. Another one of my clients, Sally Hoy, has a service-based business. Her website is Wonderled. And she is an early childhood educator that works with other early childhood educators and teaches them and helps them with their practice of play-based education. And so one of the things that we've done is we've created a YouTube channel for her. She just kicked it off a couple months ago. And she rented a cottage in the woods. She lives in Oklahoma. She rented this beautiful cottage in the woods. And she calls it the Hummingbird Cottage. And it's set up as if it were an actual classroom because she's not a current educator right now.

20:53She's just working with childhood educators. but she set it up as like a dream classroom, the kind of classroom that she would have always wanted to design and create when she was still working in the public school system. And so, you know, several days a week, she's in the cottage. She has young children there. They're doing play-based education and she can film this. And so she always has this set. She just goes, walks over to the hummingbird cottage. The setup is ready to go and she can live her message several times a week. And now because she has a physicality to her business, she's not just talking about, you know, talking on the Internet about what to do with play-based education.

21:33She has a physical place that she can go where she can live her message and really showcase the world, what she's about and how to do play-based education. Fire Nation, don't you just love Erica's passion for what she does and her passion for what her clients do? I mean, it's just so great to hear and to see. And I want you to end with a bang, Erica. Give us the one thing you want to make sure our listeners get from our conversation today, that one thing that we'll walk away with, and then share a call to action, how we can connect with you, and then we'll say goodbye. I really want you to design products and services with what you would love to buy.

22:14So if you really become a researcher in your product and service design, you will start to notice, oh, I have a tendency to like this kind of product or service. or wow, I've noticed that I really buy this kind of product or service more than this other kind of product or service. So really become a researcher. Don't just become an entrepreneur, become a researcher in what you really love and then design your products or services in the way that you would like to experience a product or service. And then when you do that, you are going to have product confidence. If you have product confidence, you are going to have sales confidence.

22:47if you have sales confidence, you are going to make a lot more money and close those sales. I have a bold business quiz on my website. If you want to have a bold business in 2024 and beyond, you can go to dailywhip.com. You can take the quiz and then you'll also get a free strategy guide with next steps. Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with EL and JLD today, so keep up that heat. And for links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com. Just type Erica, E-R-I-K-A in the search bar and the show notes page will pop right up.

23:24And Erica, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thank you so much, everybody. Bye. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Erica for sponsoring today's episode and Fire Nation's successful entrepreneurs accomplish big goals. That's why I created the Freedom Journal to guide you in accomplishing your number one goal in 100 days. And we're talking step by step. Visit thefreedomjournal.com and I will catch you there or on the flip side. DTC Pod, hosted by Ramon Berrios and Blaine Bolas, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals.

24:04DTC Pod is a podcast about all things direct to consumer. Ramon and Blaine cover everything from starting, growing, and optimizing e-commerce stores and DTC brands. If you're interested in the stories behind your favorite consumer brands, this podcast is for you. One recent episode on how the best brands are built is a must listen. Listen to DTC pod wherever you get your podcasts.