The Best Teachers Are the Best Sellers (They just don't know it However)
The majority of teachers feel that selling is unnatural and uncomfortable. But there's a way to make sales in a natural and sustainable way that is through instructing.
I talk with creators daily. I've studied thousands (maybe hundreds?) of creators at pretty much all sizes imaginable. Of creators at every scale. But if there's one big takeaway from getting close with our creators, it's that:
Creators find selling uncomfortable (and believe they're bad at it).
Sell hampers "course creation ability and enthusiasm," one told me. "It's not something that we're used to or good in," another says. "I recognize how crucial [marketing] is, but do I have strategies for it? It's not my expertise." Commentaries like this are commonplace in the group on Facebook.
I'm on a mission to create a natural selling method for those people. It's my goal to make selling natural for people who live to instruct.
A major component? Shifting core beliefs about what "selling" entails. Sure, selling can mean creating marketing funnels, paid ads, and email blasts. But that stuff is the last thing creators want to work on -- and it saps their passion for teaching.
But here's the surprising fact that I'd like to see everyone in the world of creation had known. It's a powerful and simple insight that most people miss. Everyone has the most effective tool available for selling. This happens to be their forte and what they enjoy the most in instructing. To sell more, creators need to teach more.
Transformational funnels >>> marketing funnels
It's been my experience to consider the teaching process as being a way to guide transformation. Consider it. Any time you've ever learned something, a transformation happened. The difference between before and after. Perhaps someone changed from "I can't juggle at all" and then "I can handle three balls." This is a huge change! Then, after a couple sessions, another change occurs that is "I can manage to juggle four balls!" Soon they begin to see things they can play with everywhere they travel. The world becomes an area of endless possibilities to juggle. That's transformation.
Think back in your life to an instance when you really gained something. The feeling of satisfaction, growth. The experience was most likely a series of changes that built on one another in succession, until you could not believe that you were once unsure of how to accomplish that task. Then it must have felt incredible wasn't it?
For those who are creators, funnels to market need to begin with that initial transformation. This is why I prefer to think of them as an alternative: transformational funnels. If your funnel for marketing moves students through a transformation, then you can make money through the teaching.
Think about it: it takes time to really dig deep and understand something. Mastery and knowledge are a gradual build. In most cases, there's an innate sequence of events and milestones that come with learning. (For instance, it's likely that you can't juggle chainsaws until you first learn to juggle three balls, and then four, then two chainsaws and so on.) Creators who provide this first lesson at no cost on their channels grow the fastest.
The greatest part? It is exactly a marketing funnel. There is no strategizing, or marketing admin whatsoever, an intuitive and expertise-based funnel (a transformational one!) is already in the creator's head.
How to make your sales look as a top-selling teacher
Let's look at an illustration of how this funnel transformation appears to be. Let's take a look at Brandon from the Thrive Training Institute. Brandon is a teacher who teaches one of the most powerful and essential thing is how parents can protect their child in an emergency. Recently, he posted an Instagram blog post that highlighted the critical matter that choking is the most common fatal cause of child death. At the end of that blog post, he advised people to read his complimentary guide on the subject.
This is a usual lead-generating technique, isn't it? Present a problem and tease an answer. What happened? It was a disaster. 17 likes, no comments. Why? Brandon was thinking like a marketer. He made a commercial. It presents a dilemma with no solution. The student isn't able to move along their journey of change.
Check out a more recent one. Brandon does something totally different here: he teaches parents what they should do should their child is choking. So much value! But what's has happened? 153 likes as of the writing time 10-fold more than the initial blog post. And a plethora of comments. Through teaching the solution to an issue, Brandon provides a transformation. An easy "a ha!" moment that prompts a journey for his audience. Teaching is powerful!
One thing to keep in mind is it is that Brandon is giving really good content for free. Maybe that sounds dangerous. Who would buy the course when they could just get it for no cost on Instagram? Of course, 60 seconds aren't enough to learn everything you need to know in order to help a child in an emergency! After they've begun to learn the skill then they'll finish by following his tutorial. Because his followers is thrilled by the transformation They're also sharing the article with their friends, too. (Think of the time when you learned something new, and you were thrilled to tell someone about the experience.)
He's gaining his followers by offering an effective (and free!) transformation -- and developing a lead funnel that is powerful for his business. Brandon is selling through teaching. He's marketing in a way which is authentic and natural. It's easy, it's efficient and easy to understand for Brandon and his audience everybody is winning.
The potential of authentically selling
The most vibrant (and profitable!) companies are built around authentic goals and actions. It's the same for teaching -- the best teachers hold a powerful conviction and a sense of motivation. Consider the top teachers you have had in your life. Get a pen and paper or your notepad, and before you begin reading, make the words you would use to explain them.
The most powerful and influential teachers were in deepand profound harmony with their authenticity. (Thank for your teachers, Bob and Irfhan!) They were magnetic, inspiring, and engaging. The reason they were so was that they were real.
By making selling natural and easy, we're able to unleash this potential in every creator who is willing to share their knowledge. My aim is to enable artists everywhere to share their knowledge and be in complete in their authenticity. Consider, even for a moment about that impact. A rapidly growing class of creators able to teach and live authentically dedicating their whole selves to sharing transformational experiences across the globe. If I contemplate this idea and then I can clearly realize one thing that is truly amazing: a changed world.