Transcription
This video is a full sell-by-chat playbook about how to use sell-by-chat, when to use it, why it's effective, when it's not effective, and how you can use it in your business if it's right for you.
First, let's talk about why I started going hard with sell-by-chat. In 2020, when the pandemic hit, essentially, there was a bunch of personal trainers that were out of work. And at the time, our offer was $5,000 for a six-month program. We were getting on sales calls. We were closing some people on the six-month program, but we were finding that a lot of the personal trainers that we were talking to were struggling for money, hard done by, and it was hard to convert.
And so what we decided to do is we're like, "Okay, so there's a bunch of people that need our stuff, but a lot of people don't have money because they basically just got shut down and, you know, their gyms got closed down and their business went out. So we needed to find a way to convert these people at a lower price point, but get them on a longer commitment. And I didn't want to pay a bunch of sales reps to get on calls to close lower-ticket items. So I decided I was like, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to learn the frameworks of sell-by-chat that Taki has in his program and I'm going to take these frameworks and I'm going to start running with them."
And so that's exactly what we did. We started sell-by-chatting in around March, April of 2020. And our business grew rapidly. We went from selling, you know, 10 to 15 clients a week at 5K. And when I say 5K, it's not really 5K because, you know, some people would be sold on the monthly plan or whatever. Like that was the offer price. We started selling 25 to 30 people a week on $300 a month. And it absolutely exploded. Like to the point where when we were sending these sell-by-chat documents, I would say 25% of the people were saying yes to it, which means, you know, if we got 100 leads, we'd get 25 new clients. And at that point, all we had to do was pour on the gas. So that's what we did. We poured on the gas. I doubled down on marketing, started posting twice a day every day, started podcasting five times a week. I just went super hard with marketing. Leads were coming in, and then they were just being sold by chat. As the system kind of evolved, what needed to happen is at first, there was, you know, me and another virtual assistant that were in the DMs basically making offers, but then I found we weren't able to keep up with leads. And so what I did is I ended up having to build out a sell-by-chat team.
So let's talk right now about how to build out a sell-by-chat team for your business. Because regardless of whether or not you're booking calls or selling by chat, you're going to have to build out a team. Level one of building out a team is you got one virtual assistant that's in your DMs for 8 hours a day. This person is basically acting as like a full-service end-to-end virtual assistant. They're going to be responsible for starting about 100 conversations per day, and their goal is to create three to five sales opportunities per day. Now, my definition of a sales opportunity would either be a sell-by-chat offer or booking a call. We're going to talk about that in a minute. So, that's level one. I had that plus me, but then I was still in the DMs all the time. So, I decided I need level two.
So, what I ended up doing is I ended up getting one virtual assistant in the morning and one virtual assistant in the evening. And I have the morning shift cover like 5:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Then I have the evening shift cover 2:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. And I created a split commission pool. I hired virtual assistants from Honduras, so the Philippines. And so I would pay them $650 base pay. And then at first, it was, you know, 2% of the cash they collected from the sale per VA. But then I found it easier when we just pulled the cash collected because then everybody started working together as a team. So two virtual assistants pulled cash collected of new cash. So if we closed, you know, $50,000 worth of new cash per month, then it would be 3% of $50,000 new cash that they would earn as a commission on top of their base pay. So I have two virtual assistants that work in the DMs for me. But I still found, you know, even with the system, I was spending a lot of the time in the DMs. And the reason I was spending a lot of the time in the DMs is because I had two virtual assistants, but they were full-service end-to-end VAs, which meant that they had to start the conversation, nurture the conversation, and, you know, close the conversation.
Then I thought to myself, like, how can I make the system more efficient? So, I was like, "Okay, what if I hire one virtual assistant to work at the same time as the morning shift, but they're going to be classified as an opener, and then I hire one virtual assistant the same time as the night shift, and they're going to classify as an opener. The opener's only job is going to be to start conversations, nurture conversations, and respond to conversations. The closer's only job is to take conversations that are warm slash have been nurtured and make sales opportunities for them." So then I put the best VA on the closing opportunities or the booking calls, and I put the new VA on the starting conversations and nurturing relationships because it's pretty easy and it's pretty simple. All you have to do is ask like a series of like three questions. So the new VA were starting conversations, and the closers were closing conversations. Now I had four virtual assistants in my DMs from 5:00 a.m. to midnight, 5 days a week. But that presented the next problem. And the next problem is that I didn't have virtual assistants on the weekends.
So what I did is I started treating my weekends like my weekdays. And I got two virtual assistants on the weekends full-time for 12-hour shifts as end-to-end VAs. That created the same problem, though, because these virtual assistants on the weekends that were end-to-end were having to start conversations and continue conversations. So then I created openers for the weekends as well. So then I had an opener on the weekend starting conversations, passing it to the closer, and I had that for 12-hour shifts. So now I've got full coverage from 5:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. 7 days a week. Treating my weekends like my weekdays. I digress. My virtual assistants worked 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. So full coverage weekdays, and then 12-hour coverage weekends. And that, that's how I built a team of six virtual assistants. Now, that's basically the highest level team that you are probably going to need at this stage. Anybody that's watching this video to build out a team that's bigger than that, there's a little bit more complexity that goes into it. My team is actually 15 people. So there is more complexity that goes into it.
Now I've got the same system, but the difference is I have people working shorter shifts because I find they're more efficient on shorter shifts. So, I've got 5:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Then I've got 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Then I've got 4:00 p.m. to 12:00 p.m. So that's three. I also have three different roles now. So each shift has a lead generation specialist, an opener, and a closer. The lead generation specialist is the one only one starting conversations. The opener is the only one nurturing conversations, and the closer is the only one taking conversations past the point of "mind if I ask a couple of questions to see if I can help." So that's why it adds more complexity, and I don't really think that's necessary for most people.
So, I think if you were going to build out a system of VAs, what I'd recommend doing is having, you know, one VA to start, then two VAs for full coverage. Then the next level is two VAs as openers and closers. That's the next level. Then the next level is we start treating our weekends like our weekdays. And then we get openers on the weekends as well. Now, we've got six VAs. And like that is a system that will take you to $100 to $150,000 a month.
The reason I don't like sell-by-chat, even though I built my entire business and got it to $25 million with sell-by-chat, is when you send the payment link, if the prospect has issues with the payment link, they can just ghost you and they can just dip out and they can just not pay, and you have to chase them basically to get them to pay, which I find extremely annoying. And so I would rather just close a deal on the phone, collect the cash, and move on. So now we do only sales calls. And I'll talk more about how we do sales calls in a following video, but I know that a lot of you guys that are watching this video that may have seen the Instagram post and see me talking about this on Instagram or interested in my sell-by-chat playbook. And I'm just going to give it to you. So without further ado, let's dive in.
All right, so this is my sell-by-chat playbook. Now, when you're in the DMs, there's four things that you're looking for, okay? So a clearly defined problem, how long they've been struggling with that problem, a clearly defined goal, and a measurable reason why, and a willingness to accept external guidance. If you have those things, you are going to be able to sell them by chat. Again, I personally don't like sell-by-chat right now. I'm a big fan of sales calls. Our sales and cash collected has gone up absolutely significantly. On average, we 4x the amount of cash we collect with sales calls versus sell-by-chat. However, you guys asked for the sell-by-chat playbook, so I'm going to give it to you.
Remember how I talked about like openers and closers? And so, the opener's job is to build relationships, warm up prospects, and pass warm to hot prospects to the closer. And then the closer's job is basically to close conversations. So, these are some of the questions that you can ask to warm up. What's your story? What got you into fitness? What made you want to reach out to me? What inspired you to become an online trainer? When did you know if you want to be a coach?
The closer's job is three parts. Number one, reply to the people who you got past faster. My definition of a "past conversation" is when you get past the point of "mind if I ask a couple of questions to see if I can help," which I'll show you in a second. Testing their commitment levels, aka not accepting service level bullshit. So, if a closer in the DMs with a prospect that has been passed to them, just basically like I would say, for lack of a better term, testing them and making sure they actually want to buy. Some questions you can ask: How does this change your life? On a scale of one to 10, how important is this to you? Are you willing to take action? What do you mean by that? Can you elaborate more on that? Go deeper. How would your life change? I only work with action takers. Are you ready to commit? Would you rather settle? What do you mean by that? What have you tried that hasn't worked?
And then close ways: Be short and direct with your responses. So, you don't want to send long paragraphs. You basically want to chat like a high school girl, for lack of a better term. Overcoming their objections before we get to the price. Leaning out when prospects are leaning out. What that basically means is like if a prospect is showing disinterest, then we show disinterest in the DMs as well by shorter responses and kind of like almost dismissive is the way that I'd explain. And then you want to reply to their pains and their goals in the DMs and use the words against them.
Um, so this is the introduction to the DM script. "First name, last name, thanks for the follow. Are you a personal trainer and just enjoying the content?" They'll be like, "I'm just enjoying the content." And then we engage and relate. What that basically means is like, "Oh, that's dope. Are you working on your content or sales more?" And then they'll reply and they'll tell you, "Oh, content or sales." And you can apply this to any industry. So you just take this script and modify for an industry. So, "Tell me about yourself. What's your story and what got you into fitness?" This for me is like the absolute money-maker question. The "what's your story" question is really the one that gets people to open up. I'm working with a client that paid me a lot of money for high-level consulting. And this one question is the money-maker for us right now.
Basically, what we're doing is we're gauging the temperature of the lead. And so gauging the temperature of the lead basically means if somebody opens up and really shares their story with you, then that is a hotter lead. If somebody just gives you a short response, then that's kind of a cold lead. And if they are a hot lead or a warm lead, then we want to move them along the conversation. And if they're a cold lead, we actually want to lean out. We want to offer value because if we try to book a sales call with somebody that isn't interested, they're obviously not going to show up. And if they do, they're not going to buy. And we don't want to make an offer to somebody that isn't interested because they're going to ghost you or they're not going to buy. So if they're cold, you expand. "So you mentioned a little bit about your story. Can you tell me more about that?" And then if they don't open up after that, then I'll lean out and I'll be like, "Totally cool. By the way, I do have a podcast for online fitness coaches. Have you checked it out?" They're like, "No, I haven't." and then I'll send the podcast.
If they are a hot lead, then I'll pass them to the closer. And this question is a transition question. So, "Mind if I ask a couple of questions to see if I can help?" And so, they'll reply and then I'm like, "Okay, cool. So, what would you say has been the biggest struggle with your online coaching business?" They're going to respond. And then you're going to be like, "Makes sense. A lot of my best clients struggle with this specific thing, too. How long have you been struggling with this specific problem?" And then they're going to respond. Doesn't matter what they respond. You want to mirror the struggle and time back to them. So, you basically want to like mirror their pain. That's what that's called. You want to be like, "Oh, you've been struggling for the last like 5 years. Damn, that's a long time." All right, I hear you. So, like, what's your monthly income right now? And what would you like it to be with all my coaching? And then they're going to reply. And if they're under 5K or over 5K currently, we're going to have a little bit of a different response because if they're under 5K, then we want to send a testimonial that's basically going to be realistic for them. So, we'd send a 10K testimonial. If they're over 5K, we want to send a testimonial that's like really exciting. So, we want to send like a 25K testimonial. "These are the type of results you can expect if you're coachable. What would it mean if you were able to hit your goal of, you know, $25,000 a month?" And they're going to reply. And they're like, "Okay, in the next 60 to 90 days, what are the top two results you want in your coaching business?" And they're going to tell you what you need. You're like, "Perfect. Would you like some help?" And they're like, "Yeah, sure. Sounds good." And usually they'll be like, "What does that look like?"
So then if you're going to sell-by-chat, then you would say, "Well, the Change Labs Academy is the most affordable program in the market. We've helped 300 coaches hit $10,000 a month. I've got all the details for you in a quick video. It's not a fancy landing page or anything. Mind if I send you the details over chat?" And they're going to be like, "Yeah, sure." And they're like, "Awesome. Got to go grab my computer. But while I do, check this out." I always send a testimonial page before I send the agreement. And this testimonial page is obviously from when I was running sell-by-chat, but it was just me in the backyard kind of like ranting about, you know, what we do and how we've helped. And then these are a bunch of our clients that have been through the program. So before I send the sell-by-chat details, I actually send the testimonial landing page. And this was incredible for conversions because then people could consume some of the testimonials from clients that have been in the program before they actually got the details. And then I would actually wait a few minutes so that they can check the testimonials to make sure that they've actually read the message because there's no point on sending testimonials if they don't read it. I'm like, "Cool. Uh, here's the details." And then these were the details.
I actually, what I did, you guys, is I don't have an offer doc. I used to do an offer doc and it wasn't converting as well. So, I just recorded a Loom video. We're going over slides that I made. And the slides that I made are actually based off of my offer doc, which I'll show you guys in a second. Go over the details, go over what it's for, go over who it's not for, show some social proof, there's a guarantee, talk about the paid-in-full option for $35 or the monthly option for $500 a month. Come back to the chat and say, "I'm in." Then this is the way that I would do it is it would be a video and a PDF. So I'd send both of these. So then I'd send the video and the PDF both in the same thing. So they can check out both. This is the PDF. This is like the offer doc. And again, you guys can feel free to take this and make this your own. But this is, this was the offer doc. So it basically like went over, you know, it's, it's basically sales copy. So you guys can go through it yourself. Um, and then goes over some of the most commonly asked questions. And then at the end, "Is there a guarantee? Yes. What's next? If you're ready, come back to the chat and say, 'I'm in.'" "How long is the mentorship program?" "Other mentorship programs will cost you $5,000 to $15,000 upfront. However, our program is $745k for 12 months." This is a one-time installment. "Is often so needed for payment?" "It's open for discussion." "Is there a guarantee?" "Absolutely. We're so confident you're going to sign clients." "D. What's next? If you're ready, come back to the chat and say, 'I'm in.'"
So that's the offer. And then you're like, "Professional price increase this week. Last chance to get this, right? Once you have a list, let me know if you're in or out or have any questions." Cool. Now, if they come back, "I'm in." You're like, "Cool. What about the program stood out the most for you?" And then they're going to say something, and you're going to relate to what they said. You're going to be like, "Okay, that's awesome. I love that. Mind if I drop the registration link in the chat box?" Now, if they say something, but they have a question, you obviously have to answer their question. But you notice how after they say, "I'm in," I don't just send the payment link. I need to get a tie-down right here. So, this is called the tie-down. So, I get a tie-down, and then I'm like, "Mind if I drop the registration link?" And then if there's any sort of objection or they haven't fully committed, I want to overcome their objection. "I just want to make sure this is something that you need. Is there any questions I can answer for you before you feel comfortable moving forward?" Perfect. And then there's the payment links. "Go ahead and get registered. Takes two seconds. Send me a screenshot once you're all done." Then, "Perfect."
Now, if they're like, "I'll just do the monthly," da da da da da. There's also like a specific onboarding sequence that I walk people through. So, if you guys want to go through my onboarding sequence, you can.
Dealing with ghosts. All right. So, if you're in the conversation and a client ghosts you for an hour, here's what you need to do. After 60 minutes, go into the message and like one of the messages that they've sent you. The reason this is very effective is essentially what this does is this sends them a notification to their phone. After 120 minutes, go to their social media profile and like and comment on one of their photos and leave a genuine comment. You can only do this with a person that's logged into the Instagram, which would not be your opener, or your virtual. If it's a full-service VA, then it'll be somebody that could just go on your Instagram. After 180 minutes, go into the messaging sequence and send the client a message: "Are you still there?" And then if the client has not responded to any of the messages, don't follow up the same day because you'll look desperate. Follow up the next day and say, "Good morning."
If you send the details and they do not reply after 1 hour, you're going to be like, "Yo, does this program sound like what you're looking for?" And these are the objections. So, "Totally get it. Finance aside, what do you think about the program?" And then they'll be like, "Blah blah." "Let me ask you a question. If I was able to get the investment back, you learned a ton, ton of valuable info. Would the investment be worth it?" They're like, "Yep." "Sounds like you're ready to get started. What about the program stood out the most for you?"
"Actually, I changed this recently. Uh, let me ask you a question. If I was able to help you make at least $1 to $2,000 in the next XYZ period of time, would that investment be worth it?" And then say yes, then, "Sounds like you're ready to get started."
So, if they don't have the time, "Totally get it. You want to make sure you have time. Some of our best clients see results with as little as 2 to 4 hours per week. Do you think you could find two to four hours to get to your goal?" They're like, "Yeah." I'm like, "What am I?" This is a private conversation I had with one of my mentors. One of my mentors said, "If I don't sacrifice what you want, then what you want becomes a sacrifice. Are you willing to sacrifice a little bit of leisure and downtime to build your online fitness business so you never have to work another job again?" They're like, "Yeah." "Sounds like you're ready to get started. What about the programs that have the most for you?"
Then like, "Want to do my own?" "Totally get that. Respect your hustle. Is that the only thing?" I'm like, "Awesome. Let me ask you a question. Is that what you'd advise your potential clients to do? Because if you try to do it on your own, the process could waste months and you could get the result faster." I mean, that's why your clients hire you to get their results faster. "Would you rather spend three to six months trying to figure it out on your own, or would you rather just start with me today?" Okay. And I guarantee you that you can send clients in the first 30 days. They're like, "Yep." Like, "Cool. Sounds like you're ready to get started. What about the programs the most for you?"
If they don't want the big 12-month commitment, you're going to give them an opportunity to try it out for 30 days. And if they say they'd like to start next week, then we basically go into the fact that like most people that say they're going to start next week, start never. And that is the entire sell-by-chat playbook, start to finish.
Now, I don't use this anymore because I don't find it effective. It just became less and less effective for me. However, if you guys want to learn my full sales system on how I do things now and the full process end-to-end on how we're collecting an average of $400 to $500,000 new cash per month, just say yes in the comments. Let me know if this was valuable and this document will be in the description. Peace.