What Makes You An Expert

 

When other people start using you and your business in their posts, then you know you are moving forward as an expert.

It's why we get our pictures taken at business events. It shows we are associated with other businesses. 

It is one thing to get your picture taken with another successful person, and a completely different scenario when people are using you, your images, your ads or posts, your pictures, as examples of what success looks like.

When that starts happening, then you know you are achieving the goals you have been reaching for.

That is when other people recognize you and your abilities to be a winner.

3-Minutes To Yes, No BS Selling, and Shutup And Succeed are prime examples of this recognition.

These courses are being recognized and used as examples for other people to market their products and services. Companies like MARKY.ai recognize that our success is partially because of us using their programs and services, and they get to tag us in their marketing, like we use them and tag them in our marketing. 

Success begets success, and finding strategic partners like Marky.ai and BigVu.tv that will support you will become key to your greater success.

Learn what it takes to become that expert and then find strategic partners who will be happy to be associated with you to help strengthen both companies and their services.

Steve Sapato is a keynote speaker, elite emcee, and has proven his marketing prowess over years of successful product training for companies and organizations looking to expand their reach.

steve@stevesapatoseminars.com

A HOOK is a terrible thing to waste

Are you wasting your hooks? Do you even know what a hook is? LinkedIn people don't seem to know.

Why do I say that? .

Are you getting all of these spammy messages from LinkedIn users? Yes, they are getting around the rules and must be sending out thousands of these crappy invitations to connect.

Are you getting them too?

Crazy. They NEVER use a hook. 

A hook is something that grabs people's attention. It is meant to interrupt their thoughts and make them pause over what you are asking, offering, or saying. 

A hook is something everyone should use. Like, 10 out of every 3 people still smoke. They just spotted the Abominable Snowman in Minneapolis! 18 people got sick eating these.

Do you see what a hook is?

Why aren't you using it?

A hook can even be a simple question. Here's one - what is the hardest part of your job? What one thing do you wish you didn't have to do? If you could wave that magic wand, how would it change your business?

But they don't do any of these. They start off with stupid stuff, 'I was looking over your profile, which is amazing, I might add... we're offering - many leaders - how are you ..

Is that the worst marketing you have ever seen? Damn close to it, am I right?

So explain to me why they don't know how to connect? Do you?

Are you sending out messages that are so mundane that people ignore them? Are you simply not connecting with people because you can't figure out how to use a simple thing called a hook?

Then go buy a book. Go read another article. Hire a freaking coach to help you learn how to write a connection letter!

They used to call them sales letters, but everyone knows you offend people by calling them sales letters these days. Sales letters are out of date and dumb. Well? So are your messages if you are not using a HOOK!

Write me a message and let's see if you can HOOK me into reading your message?

After all, I am right here on LinkedIn or only an email (subject line hook) away. Steve@stevesapatoseminars.com

Let's connect and learn how we can collaborate to create more opportunities for you!

Captain Hook is stealing all of your business! Shiver me timbers!

 What is your hook? Can you all help me out here?

I am looking to find as many email, verbal, and social hooks as I can find to help a lot of businesses grow.

Here is what I am talking about, 

Dentist: Have your teeth always been this yellow? (Think you can sell them a whitening program after this observation?)

Dentist: Did you wear braces as a kid?  Client: Yes, why do you ask? Dentist: Because a lot of adults who had braces as kids end up with crooked teeth like yours..

What hooks are you using to capture attention and plant the seed that might lead to more business for you?

What most business and salespeople want to do is tell you about their solution to your problem before you even understand the problem!

Salesperson: Without them knowing you're a life insurance salesperson - Did you hear about Mrs. Baxter? Her husband passed away suddenly, and she had to sell their boat! Had you ever seen such a large boat? Fabulous, and she has to sell her house. They are moving next week. Terrible. But I am sure that could never happen to you and me could it! I carry enough insurance to protect my wife and family in case something terrible happened to me. (Then move on from that topic!)

What business are you in and what hooks do you use to add value or create additional opportunities for yourself?

You see, the people who understand 'HOOKS' are the ones stealing all of the business.

If you have ever wondered why some people have so much more business than others? Quite often, they know a lot about hooks, how to use hooks, and how to create opportunities from every hook in their bag!

If you are using hooks, would you put some of yours into the comments?

Steve Sapato is a business coach, speaker, and author.

Reach him at qlman49@gmail.com (Q = Question  L = Listen)

How will you get more business

Do you network?    The only answer should be, do I ever STOP networking?     Isn't that what sales people tell you? They never stop selling.

Well, I am here to share a few minutes of a video that helps small business, networkers, sales people, learn how to create more success and more opportunities.

The problem in most encounters is that we all want to tell others who we are, what we do and why they should buy or use our services.

That is not the correct method for growing your business.

What is sales? Finding a problem and fixing it. Hopefully with your product or service.

Listen and see if this helps you?

www.stevesapatoseminar.com

The perfect way to sell 100,000 of your products.

The secret to your success is sitting right in front of you.

As a Podcaster, it is extremely important to know your audience and who you want to cultivate as your audience.

That simply means, who is your ideal customer. You have heard that over and over again for many years now. And that is extremely important to understand. What does your ‘avatar’ look like.

I know when I first heard that I was like, what the heck is an avatar. Because I thought it was about the movie, Avatar! Why would I want a big blue alien to represent my audience?

Then someone tried to clarify and what I took from that was, oh! Create a cartoon character that looked like me. And again, I wondered, why would I want to do that.

But you see, I am not afraid to be dumb. So I asked and asked, and FINALLY someone actually listened and helped me to understand exactly what an avatar was and why it was vital to my success as a podcaster. Please note, not just as a podcaster but as a business person, politician, celebrity. All of these need to know who, what, why, where their audience is and comes from.

I finally learned that my AVATAR was actually the intimate detailing of the perfect description of my perfect client/audience/listener/customer.

And why? Well, let me put it another way, if you could absolutely capture the attention of just the person you describe in your avatar description, that person represents over 25,000 people in America alone.

What I am saying is, if you could ONLY sell that one perfect description and they all bought from you your business would be selling at least 25,000 items. Now I don’t know about you but if my podcast could capture an audience of 25,000 people every single week think of my advertising clients. How much would they each pay to tap into a list of 25,000 perfect customers and how much would that be worth to them?

If you could find that place and sell 25,000 of whatever it is your market, would that change your business? But wait!!

Remember this. That perfect client does not buy ONE THING. They buy many things from their perfect store, their perfect service, their perfect supplier of… whatever it is that you sell. They buy many items many times each month or year. Over and over again because you know what makes them happy. You designed your business to make that AVATAR client happy and keep coming back time after time.

When I designed The Happiness Agenda podcast, it was designed so that women would share each episode with their friends and colleagues. They would listen, hear stories of overcoming terrible events in the lives of others, it would help them. And they know, meet, share lives and stories with other women. And to help them, they would share my podcast in order to help other women create lives beyond their own struggles and devastating setbacks.

And I keep saying, women, even though about 20% of my listeners are males. Because my AVATAR was a 48-year-old, white woman, divorced, middle American, living off $50,000 a year with teenage children living at home, with a decent but not new car, fighting to keep enough money to pay the rent and mad as hell that she had not planned better for her husband’s demise/divorce/disease but needs to hear positive things about how other women overcame similar circumstances and not only survived but overcame and excelled.

But I also understand that in today’s society we look for other ways to entertain ourselves. So, yes, come tune into The Happiness Agenda but I am acutely aware of needing other happy places.

Today, one of my fun discoveries was https://armchairexpertpod.com/ a podcast by Dax Shepherd. You may not know him by name but you will recognize him when you see his face. An actor doing a great job interviewing other celebrities. And as we all know, we are a society driven by our worship of athletes and celebs.

So, go ahead, tune in to his video or audio shows but just make sure you come back to The Happiness Agenda you can find it on my website at www.stevesapato.com/podcast

Steve Sapato - the most famous unfamous speaker in America and damn fine business coach. You can reach me at steve@stevesapato.com or my website is www.profitbuildercoaching.com but only when you want your company to grow, to get a great speaker, to stop boring meetings, to enhance your employees productivity and happiness... oh, wait... just call - 563-370-4938 and leave me a message. You will be glad you did.

Hi! I am a rubber band and you should buy me. But you don't. Why not?

STOP using your Rubber Band elevator pitch? It’s losing you money.

You have no idea how much business you are missing

You're missing business because your elevator pitch looks like this…

Hi! I’m a Rubber Band. I am stretchy and fun. You can buy me in many colors and different sizes, lengths, and thickness.

Will you buy it? NO!! Why not? Because that’s what a rubber band is. That is NOT what it does.  

Now answer this for me. What can YOU use a rubber band for? 

Think about it, what can YOU use a rubber band for? 

Wrapping cords, holding a place in a book, wrapping a bunch of ink pens in a drawer so they don’t spread all over, holding your remote front and back together, closing your chip bag or especially your saltine cracker package. A lid on, one thing to another, groups of things banded together. 

You see, there are dozens of things you use a rubber band for. And now that you are thinking of the uses you might even have to stop on your way home just to pick up (buy) some rubber bands!

Here is my point – in YOUR elevator pitch, isn’t that what you are doing? 

Telling people WHAT YOU ARE. 

Hi, I am Bob the Realtor. I do what other realtors do but I expect you to believe that my company and I do it better than all other Realtors. 

Hi, I’m Kathy, the attorney and I do lawyer things better than any other attorney. 

Hi, I’m Tom the electrician, and my company does everything better than all other electricians.

STOP IT!

Instead, start marketing in the 21^st Century and leave your 20^th Century elevator pitch behind.

What can YOU help people do?

Hi! I am Steve Sapato. What is your greatest challenge today?

Answer 1 – I need more leads.

                If I can help you generate more leads and generate more income by helping you close more business, would that be of interest to you?

Answer 2 – I need to convert more sales

                If I can help you generate more leads into sales faster and a higher percentage than ever before, would that be of interest to you?

Answer 3 – I need to retain my staff

                If I can help you retain your staff, increase morale, improve employee attitudes, and reduce employee errors through miscommunication, would that be of interest to you?

Answer 4 – I want to be better at networking

                If I can show you a method that guarantees you getting an appointment with someone you consider a qualified lead at every networking event you attend, would that be of interest to you?

Answer 5 – My business is growing so fast I can’t keep up but I don’t know what to do next?

                If I can show you proven methods for handling your business growth, gave you peace of mind, more time to relax and increased your profits, would that…

Do you begin to understand that, instead of TELLING people what you do in your elevator speech, you asked them questions to find their pain, problem, struggle, motivation… do you think that would get more leads? More referrals? 

Because then people would understand HOW you can help them and their friends and contacts. It is NOT what you do, it is HOW you do what you do and WHO you can help.

I understand the struggle you are going through. That’s my job, to help you grow your business. I am Steve Sapato, business coach. Do you want your business to improve?

Hi! I am Steve Sapato, what is YOUR greatest challenge today?

steve@stevesapatoseminars.com

813-908-9197

My job is to make yours easier and more profitable.

Mental Prosperity is the ability to get the most out of yourself and get the most out of people around you.

One of the greatest challenges in our society is how do we live a longer and fuller life?

Well, I  have been noting for many years how we are getting less and less involved in each other's lives.
Walking down a hallway and no one makes eye contact anymore. No one says hello! No one gets on the elevator and asks the first person who got on to PUSH THE BUTTON for our floor.

I have been in a crowded elevator and people will squeeze forward to push their floor button because they are afraid of bothering someone else to push that damn button!

I have walked down an empty hallway at work and someone walking towards me would rather look at the wall rather than say hello or make eye contact with a stranger. (OK, I may seem stranger than most.)

But, we stopped talking in elevators, in hallways, in lines. Now we text or stare at videos on our phones.
And it is this lack of communication and connection that will contribute to us dying sooner and more unhappy than ever in our history.

And now I can add, it is backed up by facts. Mine were observations and beliefs until this research and wonderful Tedx Talk offered more significant proof.
Listen and learn my friends.
Steve Sapato
Learn To Win workshops   steve@stevesapato.com

https://www.ted.com/talks/susan_pinker_the_secret_to_living_longer_may_be_your_social_life?utm_campaign=tedspread--a&utm_content=talk&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare&utm_term=science

 http://t.ted.com/nMk9fKb

https://www.ted.com/talks/robert_waldinger_what_makes_a_good_life_lessons_from_the_longest_study_on_happiness?utm_campaign=tedspread--a&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare