(Transcription)Why you need a sales plan if you are doing crowdfunding
So you decided you wanted to launch a crowdfunding campaign and you’re doing your research now to figure out what do you need to get in place to be successful or you might have launched one a few days ago and you’re thinking, I’m not getting the results just it that I wanted to see on it and you’re wondering, are there some things that I could have done or some things that I could do right now to start getting better numbers coming in? I want to help you figure out these questions.
Who am I and why do I do this work?
My name is Malla Haridat , I’m a business coach and speaker and I help entrepreneurs, particularly underestimated entrepreneurs find ways to maximize their income and do it in a way that feels authentic, that feels like who they are, they’re bringing businesses they’re proud of into the world and they’re really, really crushing their sales in the process.
Why I focus on sales plans?
And one of the areas that I focus on in my work a lot is on the sales plan, because the sales plan is one of those things that when you go to a lot of entrepreneurship events and programs and things, nobody really talks about sales to be honest.
And yet it’s the lifeblood of your business now, you might be thinking, well, if I’m asking people for money, why do I need, I’m doing a crowdfunding campaign, why do I need a sales plan?
My 3 reasons for needing a sales plan when crowdfunding
Well, I want you to listen in for these three reasons because these could make the huge difference in you reaching your funding goals or getting those numbers to go through the roof so that you’re able to even double your initial ask.
I worked with the coaching client recently and helped her get her numbers literally almost to double by using some of the tools and techniques that I’m about to give you today.
So grab a notebook, grab a pen so that you can listen in and get these ideas.
What are your numbers in your crowdfunding campaign?
And here’s the deal guys. When I say, what are your numbers? You are talking to?
Someone that runs as far away as possible from math as she possibly can. Okay, so I am not an accounting geek. I am not a finance geek in any way, stretch of the imagination.
But what I do know is this crowdfunding as much as you need to have an amazing marketing campaign that you’ve put together behind the scenes. It’s also about you going into this and knowing your numbers.
So here’s what I mean by with the first question,
- What are your warm leads? Have you sat down and really looked through?
- Who is in your network?
- Who are the people that you’ve worked with in the past, who are friends and family?
- Um what networking association groups have you been a member of?
I have to create a list?
You want to sit down and actually put together a list? Yes, I said it a list. How many people are on that list? And what do you guess, estimate this is all a guest now they might be willing to contribute.
Look at this list honestly
And I want you to do a really hard honest look at this guys because it might seem at first like, oh, I only have 10 people and you probably have way more or or you might only have 10 people and then you’re asking for a million dollars and you realize, oh, I’m going to need to really rethink this [3:00] for a minute and really spend some time working on the people that know like and trust me and building relationships and building my network.
Crowdfunding is not about luck. It has partly to do with how you set up your outreach
Because here’s the deal in order for a crowdfunding campaign to work in order for you to get people who would be coldly.
It’s people that don’t know you that well for example, or have never met you before, they’re gonna want to see that other people besides them have contributed. They’re gonna want to see other people have raised their hands, oh, this person is actually getting some money coming in. Oh, like this is a potential viable opportunity. So then I’ll put my, I’ll toss my hat into the ring.
So you gotta do your homework first and don’t play games with this one.
Really sit down and be really, really honest with yourself, Be very critical with yourself about who the people are that you can work with, who are the people that you can talk to, that you already know.
Don’t rely on 1 blast on your social media
And then that last one that I’m throwing in is how many people are going to need to talk to in this day and age right now, guys, it’s really, really, really easy to just send something out on social media and think the whole world saw it and they didn’t see it.
Create a system to maximize your crowdfunding potential wins
So if you don’t have a system in place right now of how you’re communicating with both current customers, prospects, people in your network now is the time to put that together and at the very least be clear about what your numbers are, Who are you the group that are going to be your warm leads? What does that represent? What number do you hope of? People have never heard of you before, will connect with you and don’t make that number two crazy high.
You have to move people from being strangers to interested
Okay, because just the same way you’re not interested in working with strangers, you know, that’s the reality about how crowdfunding works.
It really works well. If you start off with a very strong campaign from your warm leads and then also how many people are you going to need to outreach to directly? Don’t turn this into a conversation where you just throw it out on social media and hope that people are going to see it because they probably won’t. But if you reach out to them, if you find ways to connect with them individually, they’re going to be interested in working with you now,
Don’t stress it if you are feeling overwhelmed
[5:00] if you are in a total panic at this point and thinking, Maya, that is a lot of work, I don’t know even know where to start, even once I get that list together, hold on, hold on, I have another tip for you that’s going to help you. And this is a big one when it comes to sales plans a lot of times what people hope within their businesses that they’re going to make a ton of money in their business, right? Like that’s, that is one of the reasons very often why people start up company. Not always, but it is a key one.
It’s not about building it and hoping that they will come
Here’s the deal though, smart people who are selling do not, do not, do not, do not. Just throw something out in the ether and hope that people are then going to say, okay, that’s something I’m interested in. I want to buy this thing and I really want to highlight this as a very, very strong encouragement to everyone right now, especially if you haven’t launched the crowdfunding campaign, you’ve got to do pre sales.
Do your homework – Pre-sales
You have to talk to people before you’re going to need something before you’re going to need the money to kind of let them know.
I’ll give you a quick example
Um, a couple of months ago, I was working with my daughter and her troop to sell Girl Scout cookies. When it comes to business and you think about the systems that Girl Scout has set up – whether you like the cookies or not, the business model is pretty awesome.
And one of the things that they ask the girls to do is they ask them to send out an email about a week or two before the cookie sales are going to happen and let them know, hey, this is what I’m gonna be doing this year, I’m gonna be doing it again during these particular dates. We would love to have you back again as a customer.
Why pre-sales matters
I think it is the most amazing thing ever because what it does is it helps you start to be able to determine who are the people who are going to say yes, you are going to be interested, right? It helps those that are thinking that they’re interested kind of shore up their money, right?
Like there’s nothing worse than when you’re at work and a friend comes over and hands you a card that their kid is selling something for school and you’re like, but I don’t have money, I would actually give you this, but I don’t have money.
I didn‘t [7:00] know you were gonna be coming around with this with this particular opportunity.
Don’t surprise people – start pre selling the benefits
Start even a couple of weeks before you actually launch, so that when you launch, people are prepared, you have a sense already about the people who might want to contribute and what they’d be willing to be able to contribute.
It’s about benefits for the customer – not for you
And and here’s the key when you start pre selling, make sure that you focus on the benefits for the customer. We’re all clear about what the benefits are for you. You’re going to get money to do acts. That’s great.
But how does this help the other person who’s contributing?
There are all types of creative options for benefits for the buyer
And I know there’s a whole host of crowdfunding platforms that are out there. Some of them allow you to give prizes and rewards, or the actual product. Some of them, it’s just to help you get loan money.
And so it’s, you know, towards the better good of why a person would actually do it either way, sell the benefits to the other person, make sure they’re aware and they’re clear why they would want to be able to contribute to you.
Because it’s really, really easy to get hit with five of these types of requests for people at the same time. And I want you to stand out. Alright, so don’t miss this one. This one is a big one.
Even if you started a crowdfunding campaign, you can do this
And then the final step that I want you to think about is to also pre plan the marketing and by the way you can do this even if you started your campaign 10 days ago and now you only have 20 more days left, you can literally still do this step. So don’t worry if you already got your campaign started and what do I mean by pre plan the marketing.
Typically we talk about the launch and then stop communicating
So here’s the deal. It’s really easy when the campaign is going on to do that initial email that initial launched on social media and then nothing else. Crickets, we don’t hear from you. We don’t hear updates to hear how many people have contributed.
We don’t hear updates to here. Are there any new rewards or prizes that are happening?
Build the relationship continually
You’ve got to really think about this as an entire conversation, an entire relationship building opportunity with the people that you’re out reaching to.
So I encourage you, sit down, plan out what you want to post on your social media.
- If you have an email list or you have a text space list or other ways of communicating with people, hint, hint now is a good time to put that together.
- If you haven’t already think about, at what stage do you want to send updates?
- Is there a fun video that you can make a story about or you can share something that’s going on behind the scenes for everyone who contributes or for just the community at large?
Explain why we should care – Consider how to build an ongoing story
Everybody that’s involved. The real deal with crowdfunding, you have to consider is you want to consider it from the other person’s point of view.
I think a lot of people would be interesting and wanting to help you and help your business.
But a lot of times they don’t know why they should open their wallets like what’s the benefit going to be for me.
An example of pre-planning your marketing
So if you sit down and you think through your marketing you think through what you’re going to send out on social media, you think through what you’re going to send out an email. I’ve seen a crowdfunding campaign where they actually sent a direct mail campaign 20 days before they launched. It was brilliant because I had [10:00] a cute little magnet that they sent out in the mail advertising about the campaign. And then from there when they launched it was really easy to find the U. R. L. And to be able to actually engage with the opportunity.
Be creative
You’ve got to get a little creative about this and really really play into why would they care why would this matter to them because they want to be able to help and support.
But you’ve got to tell the story, you’ve got to be able to put it in language that makes it interesting for the other person, not just buy buy buy buy buy buy buy buy
Closing out
Okay, so I hope that these three slides have given you some ideas about three hidden secret s – three hidden reasons why you need a sales plan before you launch your crowdfunding campaign. And listen, stay tuned to this channel, Make sure you subscribe to this channel because I’m always coming back with ideas and insights and things that’s going to help you sell more in your business.
Make sure you take action from these ideas
But as you see here with the three tips that I gave you, this is not you going out in the middle of a busy crowded intersection and just asking everybody there to do business with you because that’s too intimidating.
That doesn’t feel comfortable and that’s honestly not going to get you the results, the results that I want to help you get our ways of thinking more strategically about your business, finding ways to execute more effectively and also getting more into the mindset of your customer and understanding how they think, what makes them by what gives them the insights as to why they want to connect with your company so that it becomes the natural choice when you show them and present them what your product is.
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