EP 77: The Smartest Marketing Moves to Make When Sales Are Slow
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Hey everybody, welcome back to the Acquire podcast where we talk about list building and lead generation and scaling. How to not be the everyday person in your business, which is a really big interest of mine in 2025. And pretty much anything that really is interesting to me at the moment in the marketing world. So let's get into it. I'm your host, Jenny Wright, and I'm eager to talk about the smartest things that we can do when sales get low.

And this can be because of a market turn, like a downturn. This could be because you haven't been focusing on sales for a while. It is very normal and very natural that when you are very busy that you stop selling.

And this creates a ton of problems. I've been there before. It's something that I am actively fixing. I've been doing this since the third quarter of 2024. And I'm still doing it in the first quarter of, well, now 2025. So the reason I want to bring this up is we are heading towards an economic slowdown. It is inevitable with the things that are going on in the world. And my, I guess one of the things that's just really fascinating

important to me right now is to prepare my own business, but to help you prepare yours. And so no matter where you are in your business right now, these are really solid steps to take, regardless if you think there's going to be an economic turndown. I think there will be. If you don't, that's okay. But if you do the things that I'm going to share with you, and I have been sharing in a couple of these episodes, it's going to help. But today, I really want to talk about what to do when sales are slow. Okay. And

And let's be real, every single business is going to hit a sales slump at some point. The reasons why that happened are very, very different. It could be that the economy is shaky. It could be that your audience has gone quiet. It could be that your last offer really didn't land well or even how you thought it would. And whatever the case is, it really doesn't matter. Panicking is never the answer and panicking actually leads you to make incredibly poor decisions in your business and

And I really want you to make smart moves. So quick story, way, way back when I started this business, which is now well over a decade, I got panicky because I ended up with an eviction notice on my door. I could not pay my rent, guys. It was horrible. I was really undercharging, let's be honest. I was doing only summits at the time. I was doing VA work and I was really, really undercharging for my services. But honestly, it's what I thought I was worth. And

you know what, a lot of VAs do the exact same thing. And so I ended up with an eviction notice on my door, I started freaking out because I was like, crap, I'm going to lose my my apartment. And so I panicked. And I tried to figure out what I was going to do. And I made some really poor decisions. I ended up like investing in a piece of software that I thought was going to be great for me. The software was webinar jam. It's still around, by the way.

It was very expensive for me at the time. And I thought, okay, I'll just do webinars. And I'm going to invest in this webinar jam software. And it's going to be the thing that solves all my problems. Because I was that type of person, right? Get the thing, it's going to solve my problems, everything will be a okay. And that's exactly like the opposite of the truth. Anyways, big mistake on my part. Not that the software is bad. It's just I was, you know what, wrong time, wrong thing. And so I

when you panic, you choose potentially the wrong things, you make the wrong decisions. So I want to take that out of the equation for you. And smart moves is the only thing we're going to do from now on. Okay. That is it. We,

We only make calculated decisions from a peaceful mindset after we've had some sleep, a cup of tea, and we think it through. Okay? So let's talk about the real reasons why sales might be slowing down in your business and why sometimes it's not exactly what you think and how then we're going to talk about fixing it. So it's not just the economy. It never is just the economy. Sometimes it's external factors that are playing into this as well.

But often businesses do hit a plateau and that's possibly because you have not yet adapted to either the changes of market, the changes of your ideal client and the changes of business just as it goes. So if you're still trying to hawk your wares that you created back in 2015 or something that you created back in 2020, then

The market has shifted since then. If you are trying to push an AI program that you haven't updated since the early 2023 time, it's outdated, right? And so you need to update that because it's not going to sell. And the people that buy it are probably not going to enjoy it. So look at your products, look at what you have and see what needs to be adapted, what needs to be refreshed if you have a product that needs to be refreshed.

I always look at the data. This is always my biggest step is I go to the data. Okay. And I look at my funnel metrics. I look at my sales metrics. Definitely with funnel metrics, I look where people are dropping off.

Because for me, a high converting funnel is one of my biggest focuses. If you've known me for any period of time, you know, I focus on high converting funnels that my landing pages convert over 40% that my summits convert over 50%, if at all possible, always beating industry standard is my goal always. Right. So a sales page, I like a sales page to convert over 10% closer to 20. If I can get it industry standards anywhere between like three to five. Okay.

Look at your funnel metrics. Where are people dumping off and how can you fix it? Are your leads not converting? Is traffic slowing down? Are your ads stale if you have ads? If you're running an SLO, a self-liquidating offer, have you taken a look and tried out new ad sets? Have you killed off old ad sets that are no longer converting at the level that you want? Are you updating the copy and also the, um,

creative on a regular basis, right? This is where a really good ads person comes into play. Now, I will not even try and tell you that I'm a great ads person because I'm not. I have somebody on my team. Her name is Nicole. She's amazing. And I rely on her. Now she's taught me a lot. And therefore I can talk about this at a higher level. And some of you listening might be incredibly great with ads. And you kind of be like, Jenny, what the frick are you talking about? I

I just know enough to tell you that you got to kill the things aren't working and you've got to refresh the things that you need to, to stay relevant. Okay. And on the topic of relevancy, people are fickle. Okay. Consumer behavior shifts constantly. And if your messaging isn't evolving, is not evolved to what people are talking about or the way they're talking about it, your audience might be tuning you out. Just remember, okay.

If you are not creating consistency and relevancy in your marketing, your email marketing, your social media marketing and everything, they're going to listen to somebody else that is. Okay. So if you do not evolve, 30 other people are, 50 other people are doing it better, whatever the case is, and people are going to turn away from you. You have to do it. You have to evolve. I've had to evolve. Guys, if you knew me back in 2020,

2013. I was fresh out of the mining industry here in Canada and I worked at a head office in downtown Toronto and my job was communications and investor relations in English and in French. I also had to take care of Spanish and Surinamese Dutch. Now I don't speak Surinamese Dutch, I do speak Spanish, but I had to work in these languages to support this business.

I relied on translators, but that's not the point. The point is I worked in mining. We talked about drilling. We talked about cores. We talked about percentages of ore. And it was really formal language. And so when I left mining and I came into this business, I had to change the way I talked. I had to change the way I communicated. I had to change the way I wrote because I was so buttoned up. I was so formal. I was so corporate.

that people were like, okay, you're speaking a completely different language than we are. And nobody was listening to me and nobody was getting me. And I was incredibly frustrated because I was just being so formal and I wasn't changing. So I really had to revamp the way that I talked. I had to revamp the way that I wrote everything. I had to revamp the way that I engaged with people because I wasn't in a corporate office and I wasn't talking to people in investor relations. I wasn't talking to banks. I wasn't talking to

you know, investors and buy side and sell side. I wasn't talking to these people anymore. I was talking to human beings that are trying to make enough money or scale their businesses so they can afford to take their kids on vacation. It's a completely different beast. And so you do have to be relevant and you do need to change. And over the years, I've still had to be relevant. I've still had to change and I've had to adapt. And so you need to do that as well. And so be brutal with yourself and make sure that you are

investing in your own self-development and being really, really cognizant of how you are talking to people.

The biggest mistake I see people making is they tend to pause marketing when sales dip and when in reality this is when you should be doubling down. Now, I'm not saying to spend more money on ads. I'm not saying that you need to invest more money when sales get low because that feels really counterintuitive. And I'm not going to tell you to spend more money marketing. What I will tell you is to double down on ads

really looking at what is working and what you could do better. This is where in an economic downturn, I'm always looking at automations. I'm always looking at things that I can tweak and fix so that they work better either with me or without me.

that will serve me better. And also I'm looking for percentage points. If I can be quite honest, I'm looking for a page to convert 1% better because 1% better. If you have a $10,000 product can be massive 1% better. If you have a membership that you're going for at scale is huge, right? And so 1% really matters. And this is where, when it comes to things like funnels and copy, I'm doing AB tests, right?

I'm AB testing new page variations. I'm AB testing copy variations. I'm looking at how I'm connecting with people. And last but not least...

I'm talking to people, right? I can't do this. You can't do this in a bubble. So I'll get on a call with like my friend Sean and Sean and I will talk about the economies of scale and how I sound and he'll give me like a really good sort of just download as to how he thinks I'm approaching my business right now because he knows it.

I talked to Katie Brinkley, who's a really great friend of mine. And she'll be like, Jenny, why the bleep? Are you not doing bleepity bleepity bleep to get people, more people listening to your podcast or something? And I'm like, yes, Katie Brinkley, I listened to you. You're right. And then I'll have some really good conversations with other people that I trust.

Of course, one of these conversations is always with my partner who is really great at marketing and who I trust implicitly. And so I'll have all of these conversations because I want other people's POV on my business, right? And I'll see what other people are doing.

Now, one of the things I'd love for you to look at doing is doing a marketing audit. Take a look at everything. It doesn't take very long to do this, but check your traffic, check your conversions, look at your sales pipeline, find the weak points, and then just fix them or work towards fixing them because stagnant, like staying stagnant when sales are low are going, is going to only make it worse.

Now, the best moves that you can make, I think, when sales dip is re-engage with any warm leads that you already know that you have, right? They're sitting on the fence, they're listening to you, they just haven't made a move. So if sales are down, your best potential customers that you can convert are the ones that are already on your list, right? So create a limited time VIP offer.

offer something from past leads or even past customers or even near miss buyers that you've identified in your funnels, people who showed interest but didn't convert, offer them a special incentivized offer to bring them back in, right? That's a VIP, that's an audit, that's something. So if you're a service provider,

It's hands-on transactional stuff. And I know this. If you're not a service provider and you are more on the digital product side, then offer them something of higher intrinsic value. Now, if you want to get down and dirty, and I will get down and dirty when I am feeling like sales are slumping, then it's hands-on, one-on-one. And that's where I'll offer something that takes my time because that's the most valuable thing I can do. And a lot of people find that your time is...

worthy of them spending money on, right? So an example would be sending an email out that says, are you still interested? Right? That's literally four words. And I'm sure you've heard of a nine word email, send that out too, right? So emails can reactivate dormant or warm leads to boost conversions without running ads, right? So not spending extra money, just doing better.

And then we talked about this a little bit earlier, but optimizing and repurposing what is already working. So if your content isn't pulling traffic right now, don't go ahead and create something brand new because that's going to take a long time. It takes effort. You got to write it. You got to build it. You got to pay somebody to build it. If you're not doing it, refresh what has already worked. I have a course called guest speaker advantage. I created that course. I would want to say like 2017 probably, but

I have revamped that course three times, no, four times. And every time that I do, I get a boost in sales. I add new content. I remove stuff that is no longer relevant. But that course has been around for a while and it constantly brings in leads. Okay. It's a low priced offer and it constantly brings me customers. I just refresh. I don't redo. I add some new stuff to it. I take out the things that are no longer relevant.

It's refreshed. I rerecord it even so that it's like, you know, Jenny now versus Jenny a couple of years ago, right? Because we're always changing, aging, looking a bit different. Now, an example would be

Uh, if you have like a post that's about how to build a 10 K email list and it really did really, really well for you, refresh it with new insights, repromote it, turn it into a webinar, create a lead magnet from it, and then run that. So I often take my highest converting posts, my highest converting, um, messaging, and I'll repurpose it into a lead magnet. And then that goes in my resources. And then I push that out.

because I've already got the content. It takes me not a very long time to get it up in Canva and get something out, right? This is where you go hard on organic visibility, right? Without posting a ton more. I'm not asking you to post every single day. I'm really not because I can't do it and I don't want you to do it. So if paid ads, if your paid ads are slowing down, still look at the refresh on those, but go bigger on organic visibility. What does that look like?

Pitch yourself for podcast interviews, LinkedIn collaboration, summit appearances, bundles. You know I'm huge on these. So you get seen by other people's audiences that you normally wouldn't have access to. And therefore, you can grow your sphere of influence, right? If you land five guest spots in one month, that's five new audiences that are hearing about you that never heard from you before. And you didn't spend a dime on it, right? I also love...

injecting a little bit of urgency, but the right way without being spammy or scammy about it. Okay. I don't like fake FOMO really pisses me off. And I don't like the cart, like the, um, the cart wind downs that then reset after 15 minutes. And I get another 15 minutes to buy the thing they told me I only had 15 minutes to buy.

I hate that stuff. It's BS to me. I don't recommend you do it because it's very, it's not very, I don't know, it's not authentic to me, right? So instead of doing that, create urgency the right way. Don't slash prices. Don't create scarcity. That is, you know, a bunch of BS. Bundle your offer with exclusive bonuses that actually do disappear, right?

right? So take something that you're actually offering right now and add something to it. So if you sold a course, add in a one-on-one coaching call or advanced training upgrade and do that and see how that works. Those are the action steps that I would take. Pick one of these strategies and go with that. If you implemented something that we've been talking about today, practically could guarantee you that something out of this is going to work. Okay. I'm just trying to

I don't know, invigorate or reinvigorate your marketing. And sometimes that's all you need. Sometimes you just need to like to hear somebody say, you can do this and go do this. I had a call. I have to tell you this.

I had a call earlier on this week and to be very transparent, I had a bad week. A bunch of stuff happened. You know, a client of mine, their family member died earlier on this week and it was kind of at a crunch time when we were trying to get some stuff done. It was terrible. I felt really bad for them.

And also, you know what? This week, I just wasn't feeling it for myself. I was really, really tired this week. Last week, I had hurt my back. My back was out all of last week. And if you've ever had a bad back, as you recover, you're just exhausted. All of your muscles are like sore and tired. And I was recovering from that. So I really wasn't in a good place at the beginning of this week. I had a call. I had a call with a person, one of my friends, Alicia. And she was like,

said, Hey, Jenny, one of my friends is running a summit, but she needs some guidance. Could you talk to her? I'm like, sure. So she hooked me up with her friend, Samantha, we got on a call, I was having a bad day, put all of that aside to talk to Samantha. And Samantha and I chatted about her summit that she wants to run. I gave her some pointers and some new direction, just tried to give her a hand. And she said to me, Jenny, you have the most encouraging and calming voice in

That makes me feel like I can actually do this, that I can get through the overwhelm that I'm feeling and I can actually do this. I was like, oh my God. Okay. She has no idea I'm having a bad week. She has no idea I'm having a bad day. And I'm helping her by just saying,

doing what I do and sharing what I can share. Right. And so when I say that, it's just, I'm putting aside some of the stuff that's going on. I'm not saying like bury it because burying your emotions and stuff is not a good thing. Trust me. But what I am saying is that if you just need the voice to be encouraging and to tell you to do the thing, then let this episode be the podcast episode that tells you to go and do the thing. Okay. I really don't want you to screw up

having low sales as I am predicting that there will be an economic downturn. Okay. So here's the things I'm going to do this really quick list of things not to do when sales are slow. And then we're going to wrap this up. Do not panic. Okay. Don't panic. Don't slash prices.

Right. Discanting too fast really lowers your brand value, in my opinion, and trains people to wait for sales. I am not that person. OK, don't ghost your audience. Don't freak out and go, oh, my gosh, nobody wants to hear from me right now. Sales will still be down if you stop showing up.

Sales will only improve if you keep marketing, if you keep showing up, even when engagement feels low. Even if you're telling me, like you're screaming at me right now, but Jenny, nobody's responding. Yeah, I get it. Nobody's responding. Keep freaking going, okay? Because they will respond. And if they aren't, then they're not the right audience. And now we need to shift because now we know. Great. Honestly, awesome. Now we know. And we shift to list building, which you should always be doing.

but we list build we get on summits we get on podcasts we get on bundles free ones by the way and we grow okay do not ghost your audience third don't chase shiny new strategies this is not the time to focus on building new things that you've never tried before that you have no idea if they're going to work and you spend time effort brain power possibly money in making that happen

Focus on optimizing what you already have, what already works. Tweak it instead of scrambling for brand new things that you're not sure will work. You know what works for me? Webinars, emails, showing up, offering calls. I always say this. This was, gosh, what year was it? It was, I was supposed to go on a ski vacation and it was right after Christmas. I was supposed to go in January and

And I got sick. I got bronchitis, which turned into pneumonia. I had a fever of like 105 and I couldn't go on my ski vacation. Luckily, I was able to cancel it. The person on the other side of the phone took pity on me and I canceled without losing my money. Thank goodness, because it was non-refundable. So...

But what I did do is as I started to feel better and the antibiotics were kicking in, I went on to Facebook and I said, "Hey, my ski vacation is canceled. I am going to be home when I thought I was going to be away. My calendar is clear and empty. Please help me fill up my time. I'm offering free sales calls. Free calls. I will do an entire marketing strategy for you without any, you know, bells or whistles or sorry, not bells and whistles, any strings attached.

And I booked 36 calls. I closed more than half of those in the next, I don't know, 30 days after that. I closed some right on the calls. I think I closed like, I don't know, 16 clients right on the calls because I was just offering it. And I was just, you know, people like, well, then how do I work with you? I'm like, oh, okay, sure. Here, this is what it looks like. Do not give up. Focus on what works. Stop scrambling for brand new tactics. Focus on the things that actually make you money and work for you. Webinars and sales calls work for me.

I always double down on those. Okay. Choose your revenue boosting strategies like summits, podcasts, and all those kinds of things. Adding on a VIP, set a deadline and start implementing it. You can do these things overnight. Even small tweaks can create or even restart momentum. Okay. I hope this has helped.

If sales have slowed, you are not stuck. You are not broken. Your business is not going to close necessarily. The smartest entrepreneurs know how to pivot a bit, optimize a lot, and create momentum. You're literally pushing a rock up a hill, but you can do it. I'm not going to say it's easy. I will say my internal phrase, which I say in my head all the time is suck it up. It sucks. It sucks.

But just do it. It gets easier every time you do it. And then eventually it's just part of your daily routine and you're like, wow, I'm doing this and it's working, right? And if you need help with this, absolutely, I'm here for you. 100%. I'm happy to offer people calls to help show them this personalized strategies that can get your sales up even when they're slow. And there's always a link in the show notes on how you can book that call with me.

So I can help you figure this out if you're feeling overwhelmed, right? So click the link, book a strategy session with me. I will show you the steps. Again, these are no strings attached. I just enjoy doing them because actually it's quite the mental gymnastics for me and my brain loves that, okay? So if you listen this far, thank you so much. I love doing this podcast for you. We've got some great guests coming up in the not so distant future.

And I'm excited to share all of this information as I'm also going through this process of scaling and pulling back from being the doer and implementer and more the CEO in my own business because of my own goals. And I'm going to share all that with you. So thank you so much. I really appreciate you listening. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave me a review. I'd love to hear from you. And also think of who you could share it with. Maybe there's somebody that needs this information right now that you could just forward this to and make their day.

Thanks so much. We'll talk to you all soon. Take care.