[00:00:27] Jay: Hi everyone. Welcome to The First Customer podcast. My name is Jay Aigner today. I'm lucky enough to be joined by Lynn Whitbeck. she is the founder and CEO of Petite2Queen. she has like a million things going on. She's over in Seattle. We got to catch up a little bit about very, cloudy weather in Seattle.

Lynn, thank you for bringing the sunshine today. How are you? 

[00:00:49] Lynn: I am great. And Jay, I am so thrilled to be here. Thank you so much for having me. 

[00:00:53] Jay: the queen of sales. I told you I'm going to steal that and I'm going to be the king of QA. I love when people will kind of come up with a name for themselves,and, or maybe somebody else comes up with it for you.

and they kind of live with it. So tell me a little bit, where did you come from? where'd you grow up and did that have any impact on you being an entrepreneur later in life? 

[00:01:11] Lynn: Well, you know, I grew up in just the normal midsize town, on the other side of the mountains, we were talking about that also pre show and, you know, really what happened was I ended up when we moved over to this side of the mountains and I was in Girl Scouts.

I love Girl Scouts, very involved from brownies all the way through. And, but in Girl Scouts, you know, we sell cookies. And we had this thing where you could, if you sold literally a truckload of cookies, you would get this coveted cookie badge. And I was determined to get that cookie badge. And so I took my friend who was the most shy, introverted, Individual and I set up a system so that we could sell cookies and I was like the Walmart greeter.

I brought him to the table and she took their money and gave them the cookies and we sold enough cookies and we're the only 2 girls in our entire district to get that coveted cookie badge. And so when. I think that really started me with sales in the sense that when you love the organization, you love your product or service and how you are helping and serving others, sales is easy, you know, and that side of it.

So, that sort of set me on a journey. I did not anticipate being in sales, until after I got out of graduate school and I literally forced the owner of the company I was working Or to let me go into outside sales, and, just never look back. 

[00:02:41] Jay: I love the Girl Scout, do you still have the badge today?

[00:02:44] Lynn: I found my sash. I did. And I, 

[00:02:47] Jay: you should frame that thing... That's a great, you can, that could be like the cover of your book, you know, what you eventually write, the sales queen, Humble origins or something. so, tell me about Petite2Queen. What do you guys do? who do you serve today? And who was your first customer?

[00:03:05] Lynn: Well, business owners hire us to ignite winning sales because most are chasing down leads. They lack client retention, conversion, and profits. We work on the sales strategy, really getting your arms around who is your ideal client? You know, what's their why? You know, what do they want, need or lack? Why does it matter to them?

So they can dot, dot, dot. And I always, I actually have this handy. No one buys an iPhone to make a phone call. Okay. It's for the dot, dot, dot Why. So all those things, so really getting into the head of your clients. And what their why is and then framing what you do around that and building out your sales strategy to answer that because their why also changes along the journey from the initial spark to when you're guiding them to a decision to when they're a long term client providing you with introductions, referrals, and additional business.

So, and my first client Was actually a podcast host. I was a guest on his show and he was like talking to me and he's like, well, I want to know more. And it was interesting. And we had a conversation afterwards. It was nothing at all that I intended. And I told him about, setting up your sales strategy.

And I have a 12 step process that you go through and he says, I need this. He went, okay, so we that was my 1st client. and we put the program together for him, the, and, his team. And ironically, it was really great. It just clarified things and their business. Literally, he grew 33 percent the next year.

So by having that clarity and the sales strategy in place, and that with all his team rowing in the same direction, because often with business owners, there's this elixir, this founder magic, and it's not something you can bottle, but you can figure it out the basic core formula so that then you can enable your team and new salespeople.

to really grow that business and to serve those clients, help them and create impact.

[00:05:22] Jay: two things there. One, you pulled a real switcheroo there by, I mean, that's the opposite, right? Like, I mean, post most of the hosts are trying to get, you know, to have people on there. So you like really. Must've been good. And then the second thing is the irony is I was thinking in my head, wow, I could probably use something like that myself too. So you may have got a second podcast host as your customer. this is not my full time job, so it would be for our other business. But, so that's very cool.

And so how are you marketing today other than obviously being on podcasts and that sort of thing? Like how do you, what's your top of funnel look like? 

[00:06:00] Lynn: Well, I have a number of different lead magnets just like everyone else. I am very, attuned to communicating with my audience with really personalized emails and how I communicate and the things that we do and offering different masterclasses, things like that.

To be truthful, Jay, Most of my business comes from referrals. So I have, it's just an automatic thing and repeat business. I expect my clients to graduate, you know, and to move on, but then they come back and they hire me for something new. And so that is a really common, Trend that I go through. So I just finished a project that was a voice of the client project, a voice of the customer.

So you understand your client, why help them frame their next five and 10 years of planning really five years, but you know, let's think longterm. And so to position themselves for that what's ahead and through that, then they hired me to do some additional training for their team. So some core personality training on how to better communicate, with everyone they work with from internally, but especially externally with their clients, both from those initial conversations.

And then finally through, you know, when they're doing ongoing business with them, because the quickest, shortest, highest profitable sale is a sale from a referral. And, you know, really connecting with people. I mean, this is sort of, once again, I'm throwing a curve ball here, but you have to ask for the referral.

You have to seed them and ask, and that's part of a strategy. That's part of a sales strategy. Most people say they ask for referrals and they have, they truly, they don't train on it, they have a crap policy and maybe they have, Oh, you know, we have a contest. If you get a referral, you need to train on it.

You need to have a program and you need to practice and you need to ask when you've earned the right and. you can, same thing. I had a client that I did referral training for them in June. In August, they had their best month ever. So it's an automatic thing if you get into that mode. so you need to ask, seed, ask and receive referrals.

Sorry, I drew a curveball at you. 

[00:08:25] Jay: No, I mean, I'm telling you, this is, it's so funny because I know it's a great, it's a great business to be in. It's a great plan. It's a great, like, there's so many companies that need. What you're selling. So the flip side to that is why would somebody go with you compared to the 50 million other we'll grow and help and scale.

So help your sales strategy companies you see on LinkedIn and everywhere else. Why are people going to work with Lynn? as opposed to those people. 

[00:08:55] Lynn: Worthy intent. I genuinely desire to help and serve my clients and create impact. And it has to be a two way win win relationship. I'm not there to take your money and put you into, take a square and stuff it into a round hole.

You know, that is, you know, I'm not a cookie cutter, nothing like that. I'm not going to sell you some bill of goods. Oh, this is going to transform your life. And you're going to have hundreds of leads without any effort. That is absolute bowl hockey. It, you know, and I, it's just, there's this two sided thing, Jay and you know, it, there's a lot of people out there in sales and doing sales support and sales systems and all this other stuff and it's garbage.

You can pay tens of thousands of dollars for nothing. And they literally expect you to, the first thing they do is throw you into Kajabi or teachable or something, right? And then they have these mass coaching sessions. And when you ask a question, their response is, well, tell me what you think. It's like, really?

I paid five figures for me to tell you what I think. I mean, I'm asking for advice. I'm asking for help here. And it's because they are not grounded in a core strategy. If you don't understand Your client's why and what you do and how that helps and serves them and creates that why.

You are never, ever going to have consistent, reliable, profitable sales because you're going to always be chasing the rabbit, period.

[00:10:25] Jay: How has, sorry, I was going to say, how has that changed? How has your approach changed since when you started the business? To today, how has it evolved? You know, maybe even technology wise, right?

Maybe the avenues that you suggest people go after, like, how is that shifted over the last? Because I think you've had this business for what? 6 or 7 years at this point. 

[00:10:44] Lynn: Yes, 

[00:10:44] Jay: so, how is all that shifted for you as a business owner yourself? 

[00:10:49] Lynn: Well, I mean, you want to use tools and technologies that are available, but that core, if you don't understand who your ideal client avatar is and their why, choosing which tools to use, which platforms to be focused on, you can literally spread yourself thinner than butter on hot toast.

So instead, you really need to understand that and understand where your passion is to serve and help others so that now you can actually choose what makes the most sense. At the end of the day, it's still a human to human connection. People buy from people. You know, not unless you're just buying a coffee mug at Starbucks, right?

But you're still in Starbucks for a reason because they've created a feeling, a consistent product. Okay. I'm not even going to go there. So I'm not a DTC person, but I'm really B2B for business, but people buy from people. And if you don't understand the people who are your ideal clients, And create your strategy around that.

you're just, like I said, sure, you can have some hit or miss success here and there, but there's nothing that's you're just constantly chasing the rabbit and what tool you use, what technologies, what platforms you're on. It depends. On your business and what you do in some cases, people, they really need to be in attending trade shows or conferences.

They need to create opportunities so they can connect with their ideal clients at those locations and how they do that. Right? And other in other cases, people can do it in a different way. It's just. There's a lot, you know, there's a myriad of choices. What you don't want to do is try to do it all. That's the biggest mistake you can make.

Focus on who your clients are, where they hang out in bunches and how you can connect with them. 

[00:12:48] Jay: So is there as someone who does this for multiple types of businesses and verticals, I would assume, is there just a general kind of. You know, for sales strategy that can be applied to basically any business and you don't need to maybe know as much, or you kind of learn.

A certain amount about each client, and then that kind of gives you the ability. Oh, yeah, you do need to go to trade shows, or you need to go to wherever. Like, how does that work? Is it kind of just like a baseline? That's consistent across. Most B2B businesses, here's what you should be doing. Here's your 12 step like.

Everybody should do that, and then here's the layers on top for your custom. 

[00:13:28] Lynn: So it is unique for every business, you know, because in some cases of businesses, there's really not sort of trade shows that make sense for them or conferences, et cetera. and there's a lot in some cases, speaking at your local chamber of commerce or B and I's is unique.

It's effective. It truly depends on who is your ideal client, you know, and building out around that. If it's not client focused, I mean, it's your show customer first. I mean, you can't make a sale if you don't know who you're selling to. I'm saying maybe you will on a fluke, but you know, honestly, you've got to, that is if you don't understand you, who your client is and their, why, what keeps them up at late at night?

what are their monetizable pain points? You know, how is this adding to their stress? You know, what this means to them if they could either fix it, solve it, make it better. this is the core building blocks so that you can create plan to create the spark so you can connect with them and then from that spark, nurture the relationship and from nurturing the relationship, get into a conversation.

Yeah, and once you have a conversation, then you can also determine, are they the right fit for you? Okay, because sometimes people are not a good fit for your business.and it's, if you're going to be treading water the whole time and are swimming upstream like a salmon and it's really hard. So, and there's other cases where it's a win win.

And that's the relationships you want, where you can truly help and serve them, create impact, and they in turn are then going to become raving fans and provide you with introductions and referrals for additional business, not only sometimes within their own organization, but with their peers. Or friends or family.

[00:15:32] Jay: So, just to dig into the process a little bit, how, so is it kind of an exercise where you're working with businesses and you and your team working with businesses to, get the answers to all those things or, you know, cause like you said, if you can sign up to a bunch of different courses that just stick you in a, Some generic training program and then like make you answer the question.

But it's like the real value I would assume from a company like yours is to kind of help unstick people. Cause I think, you know, myself, including a bunch of my agency owner, friends and everybody else, like we had, we're stuck in different parts of the process, right? Like we have, maybe we have too many tools.

Maybe we don't know exactly who our customer is. Maybe we know how to start conversations, but we don't know how to go past that, right? Like there's a bunch of different. I think sticking points in that. And do you guys kind of go from soup to nuts to help, you know, understand who their clients should be, how they should kind of break down these barriers and unstick them in those different locations, is that the kind of overall goal of your interaction?

[00:16:30] Lynn: Absolutely. And one of the things is we do work with our clients one on one with, you know, what is your client? Why? And we do have, exercises that we go through, but we don't, we do it with you. Everything we do is live human to human. We bring in a fresh perspective and an alternate way of looking at it and you always need someone who can see around your paradigm.

and sometimes it will be a stupid question or, you know, like, oh, no, no, no. And this is why we do it this way. Okay. That makes sense. But it still gets everybody thinking. And then sometimes people come back, well, you know, even though we've always done it this way, we don't have to do it this way.and it's, it is, it's almost like those, the floodgates, they start to crack open, but you can think differently.

And, it's really trying to get into, there's also tools and things we can do to get into the head of who are your, what your clients are thinking. And so there's a lot of different ways to go about that. But by honing in on that and understanding what was the spark, what was the attraction? How did that relationship grow?

Then you can replicate it and you figure out where they hang out in bunches, how you're going to connect with them. Create the spark and then you now you really understand their why you can create the follow up the outreach and the follow up. I mean, outreaches until you've had that meeting and you've had the one on one.

And after that, it's follow up, right? Outreach and follow up or sort of kiss and cousins. But that's another stumbling point. follow up is the number one deadliest in the sales. I would say it's client Y, but it's follow up because people fail to follow up and they fail to follow up in a value driven client Y focused manner so that even if the client doesn't respond, they're ghosting you because they're busy by the way, pretty much because they're busy, they're hearing you, they're seeing you and you can break that and then get into that next stage of the conversation.

[00:18:37] Jay: So it's. Figuring that out to drive the conversation, to guide them to a decision and then creating a delightful experience. So not only will they want to give you a raving review, testimonial, more business, but referrals. if you had to start over the business tomorrow with everything you've learned, what would be step one for you?

[00:19:03] Lynn: Step one would be figuring out, absolutely who the ideal client was and where they hung out. Because like many business owners, I did Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, you know, all the different platforms, doing all these different things, created a podcast, did, I mean, it was just, Too much, you know, wrote a book, I mean, and instead it's really coming back full circle.

It's applying the same lessons that I work with my clients on to myself and to my own business instead of just, oh, well, you got to do all these things. No, you don't. In fact, 

[00:19:43] Jay: why do you think it's a trap? Why do you think, you fell into that trap? As somebody who set out to solve that problem?

What do you, 

[00:19:50] Lynn: well, I didn't set out to solve that problem. I said, I started a business and it's like, Oh, you have to be on all these social network platforms and do all these things. I'd never been, a business owner before. I've been in startups and C suite roles. And of course I'd been in corporate sales.

For many years. yeah, but that was new for me. So that's that there is a learning curve. There's absolutely a learning curve for business owners and entrepreneurs. And, I think having that really solid business plan in place and understanding what you do, how you help and serve clients, and then really what's their, why, why are they going to hire you?

why does it matter to them? That's the key point that if you can start there, you're going to save a whole lot of money, time and heartache. 

[00:20:42] Jay: Love it. And I agree wholeheartedly. I think that's why I started this podcast. I heard it enough that I wanted to figure out why people don't know who their customer is.

all right. So non business related, If you could do anything in the world, and you knew you couldn't fail, what would it be? 

[00:21:01] Lynn: Oh, wow. hey,

wow. If I do anything in the world and I knew I couldn't fail, I would, Save animals from extinction. I guess, you know, there's so many animals in my lifetime that we're going to continue to see extinct and, really like to share the planet. 

[00:21:22] Jay: I love that answer. I've never heard that. So you're the first person to say.

Save animals from extinction. That's a great answer. I love that. All right. Lynn, you're fantastic. You shared a lot of really great stuff. you're very delightful to have on. I'd love to have you on again someday. tell, how do people reach you? Where do they find Petite2Queen? if they want to reach out.

[00:21:40] Lynn: Absolutely. It's petite and the digit two queen. com. We've got a lot of resources there. I actually have a whole piece on the 12, my 12 step, program on, you know, really going through what's your client, why, what's your sales strategy. and you can get that, and really start your thinking and start going through this.

And do you have a sales strategy? Most people don't. and that's going to really help you out. And of course you can find me on LinkedIn. And, amazing podcasts like the one here. 

[00:22:10] Jay: You're too kind. Thank you so much. Well, it was great meeting you. I may be in touch about figuring out our sales strategy.

but you have a good rest of your weekend. I think the weekend's come up. It's Thursday. Enjoy your weekend and we'll talk again soon. All right. Thanks, Lynn. All right. 

[00:22:24] Lynn: Thank you, Jay. 

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