60 - Thought Leadership in Sales w/ Daria Vodopianova
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Today’s guest, Daria Vodopianova is the co-founder of the Thought Leadership Academy and the LinkedIn Funnel Blueprint. She’s on a mission to empower leaders and ambitious coaches to step-up in their visionary role and build a sustainable business around their knowledge. We’re going to pick her brain and talk about how she operates and her philosophy around thought leadership. 

Daria helps people transition from traditional salespeople to the experts and experts to thought leaders. Sales is a core skill of any profession--it’s something you have to master. When it comes to competitive markets, you need to stand out from the rest. When you have authority and thought leadership, a customer who may have previously not been able to differentiate your product from someone else’s suddenly has seen you, you have provided value to them, and they’re more inclined to trust you and what you do. When you can create that momentum, you build a sustainable income with a steady inflow of leads. 

It’s important to remember that content isn’t just content--it’s your traffic source. When your potential client wants to check you out, they will do their research. If people like you, they will listen to you, if they trust you, they’ll do business with you. When they can’t find enough information, you’re losing an opportunity. You can build out an evergreen, ever-present trust machine with your content. You’re showing your prospects that you’re capable before even having a conversation. Don’t be afraid of putting yourself out there--your content is for your customers, not you, not anyone else. How can you serve them? What could your community use from you? You aren’t serving everyone, you’re becoming an expert in what it is your ideal client needs.  

As a salesperson, your goal may be to get someone on the phone, either to ask questions about a product or service you’re selling or have sold. By creating content and providing value related to what you do, you’re opening the door even wider for people to contact you to get on that all-important phone call. Your audience has beliefs that you can break with your content. This sells the call for you! By the time you’re on the call, it’s just logistics. 

To maximize profitability in your space, it takes the right mindset. There are three stages to thought leadership: profit, time, and leverage of influence. It’s crucial to realize all your actions at your business’s outset should lead to profit, down to the market in which you work and your content strategy. Think about your niche--you’re creating content for someone who is in your price bracket, looking for what you provide, and is open to working with you. You’re not creating it for everyone! You cannot solve problems for everybody, so don’t speak to everybody. From there, you can clone and scale what you’re doing and the problems you’re solving. 

How long it takes is down to your sales mindset. If you really understand your customer’s beliefs and what it is you need to provide, you can skyrocket and bring courses wherever you want. If that person is comfortable in sales and at a higher ticket price range, it can take 1 year to get to 6 figures. As a thought leader, you want to be the master of your skills, and that includes the drive to become better and commitment to your art. Clarity is at the core. You have to be bold and understand that you can’t hide from your potential clients. Get out in the field and get a “no” and get comfortable with rejection--it’s not a bad word. It’s not about you, there are so many things that are out of your control. All you can do is prepare and make yourself better to set up the situation that best serves your goals. The only way to get a yes is to get a no.

Online course completion is very, very low. Many people will buy a course and never finish it because there is no deadline or urgency. Then, they don’t get results and it becomes harder to retain them as a client. If you get someone to come to a program with intention, you position yourself for success because your client will get results from your product. By charging more, you get clients who are serious about results. Find a client who you know is aligned with what you do, otherwise, you aren’t serving them. Sometimes, it makes more sense to say no when the needs aren’t met. Not every client is a great client. Find people who are in it to win. Make the low ticket offers optional--the high ticket clients drive revenue.

LINKS

DariaV.com

Connect with Daria on LinkedIn!