Simone Vincenzi – tips

• Make More Sales Creating Small Events
• Keep your marketing and approach to sales simple
• Public speaking gives you credibility
• When offering your own events, start small
• The secret to conversions? Read below…
• Make sure the people in your database are contacted regularly by real people

 

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Doug: Well, welcome back to Real Marketing Real Fast. Today, I’ve got a guest from a different part of the world. I’d like to welcome Simone Vinchelli? Vincenzi?

Simone Vincenzi: Vincenzi, yes. The second one is the real one.

Doug: Vincenzi? I asked you before, and I still screwed it up. Well, he’s known as the purpose strategist. He is the Co-founder of GTeX and is a TEDx speaker. He is a lead facilitator at eXplode Your Coaching Business, and author of four life-changing books. Fed up with the dirt and the personal development industry that no one talks about, he believes in changing the industry through the creation and supporting a genuine community of coaches and speakers.

He helps them do this by creating seminars that convert while delivering incredible value to the audience. During the past four years, he has transformed from working in the catering industry to building a six-figure coaching practice and shares the tools with his clients, that allows them to prosper from zero to 100,000 pounds. Over the last 12 months, he has spoken in front of 3,000 individuals, which includes sharing the stage with Les Brown, Trent Shelton, and Doug Vermeeren.

He’s organized over 170 events, including a Gary V speaking from the New York Hall Boxing Ring, and he currently speaks on more than 200 stages a year. Following his passion for making an impact on the younger generation, he also partners with the largest youth organizations in the UK, helping them to deliver more effective courses and training. Simone cannot live without three things: speaking, a basketball, and playing his didgeridoo. So, welcome to the show.

Simone Vincenzi: Thank you, Doug. It’s been great, and thank you for the introduction. I appreciate it.

Doug: Well, is there anything that I missed in the introduction that you’d like to add?

Simone Vincenzi: Yeah, there is something that needs to be updated, which is I’m also a Forbes’ contributor. I’m a contributor to Forbes and the Huffington Post. I managed to get into Forbes after a year. I [had 00:02:05] it on my radar literally last month, so that needs to be updated there.

Doug: Congratulations, that’s a big feat. Good for you.

Simone Vincenzi: Thank you. I appreciate it. I appreciate it.

Doug: So, as somebody that I’ve followed on social media for a while and I’ve watched what you’re doing and what you’ve done, do you want to share a major breakthrough or success that you’ve had, maybe with a specific client or specific marketing tactic?

Simone Vincenzi: Yeah, absolutely. So there are a few things that, as we discussed before, is all about simplicity. I like to make things simple. I think that a lot of people now are running after this complex funnel, these complex business strategies. Without realizing actually that the more complex something is, the more resources, more money, more time it takes.

Doug: Right.

Simone Vincenzi: In everything I do and all the clients that I work with, I go back to basics. It’s like what’s the easiest way that we can monetize this product while delivering an incredible value to our clients? This is the basic principle. I think that in one of the strategies to use, to understand the principle is going back to basics because when you start a business, you know that there are some products or services that you sell, and your clients will naturally buy. And that happens, the business grows, right? And the business grows so you think that now you need to add a more complex business. Just because the business is bigger, and that’s where all the complicated, convoluted, funnels, and strategies, and tactics, they come in.

But my invitation to you, that you’re listening right now, is to say okay, think about what were the things that actually your clients were buying that is really easy for them to buy. It’s a piece of cake. You have a conversation with them, and they, “Yes, I’m in”. What if you could just, not mean just, but if you could focus 90% of your efforts there. Wouldn’t your life and your business be simpler?

Doug: That makes sense.

Simone Vincenzi: Absolutely. So something that I found working really well for me is to go back to basics. Always go back to basics, and finding what is the simplest strategy that I can use, and one of the strategies that I advise for people that love to be in front of people, because you know, Doug, not everyone has the same strength, right?

Doug: No, that’s right.

Simone Vincenzi: There are some people that love being in front of people, and other people are that they would happily hide behind a laptop all day and not meet anyone, and they’re completely happy. I am not one of them. I’m a people person. I love to be in front of people. I love to have this human contact. I love to … I’m in Italian. I love to hug, [inaudible 00:05:05], and something that worked really well for us is to go back to basics and to run events.

Where everyone is going online and saying, “You need to market your business online”, I say, “How about I market my business by speaking and creating my own events and by speaking on other people’s stages and focus 90% of my effort there?” Now, the reason why I think this strategy is brilliant, it is because there is nothing that converts more than your potential client meeting you, speaking on a stage, and meeting you in flesh and blood. You are there. They can you see you.

Doug: Sure.

Simone Vincenzi: 20 minutes on stage is equal hours and hours of videos watched about you online.

Doug: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, people buy from people they like and trust, and there’s nothing that builds trust more than shaking somebody’s hand, looking them in the eye, and having a conversation.

Simone Vincenzi: Absolutely, particularly after you’ve already spoken on a stage. Because then you don’t even have to sell yourself anymore. Your credibility is there. You already sold yourself, so then the conversations that you have with other people are, “How can we work together?” or, “What’s the next step?” And that makes the process so much easier. I remember I did a … The turning point for me was when I did a speaking gig, and after I went … I started speaking. That’s how I started. And then I went down the route of creating complex and weird and wonderful online funnels. Those are the other things that made my businesses very complex, and then I went back to basics, and I started speaking more again.

And I remember that event. I had a 15-minute slot on stage, so very short. Nothing big. Nothing special. From the back of that event, I made more than 20,000 pounds. I’m talking pounds, about $25,000 from inquiries of people that saw me at that event and then they decided to work with me, after 15 minutes. Now, I call it a very good ROI. A probably awesome ROI.

Doug: Yeah, absolutely.

Simone Vincenzi: So, that’s the main strategy that I like to share. If you like speaking, if you like it, people, and you like it, going on a stage, focus on that, because there is nothing that will convert more than this strategy.

Doug: I would also add and push back, I would say whether you like it or not, if you want your business to grow anymore successful, go on stage anyhow. Just get over the not liking it.

Simone Vincenzi: Absolutely, absolutely. I completely agree with you. I want to see everyone on a stage, because whether you doing it behind a camera, whether you’re doing it in front people, do it front of people. It’s easier.

Doug: So what’s the biggest myth about this tactic? Why don’t more people do this?

Simone Vincenzi: That’s a very good question, Doug. A lot of people don’t do this because they generally start the speaking word by seeing big events or by attending big events. And I remember myself when I attended my first event, and I used to attend all the free events that you could possibly think and imagine because I had no money. I had 100 pounds when I started the business. So I couldn’t even pay for a freaking ticket. I had to go to all the free events and I was always there first row.

And I was saying to myself, “One day I’m going to be like that guy. One day I’m going to be like that guy. One day I’m going to be like that guy.” Every event and they were doing events with, you know, hundreds of people, thousands of people, with all the lights, the music, the dancers on the stage, lunch for everyone, and I’m like, “How can I put up something like that?” It would cost me about $25,000 or pounds just to create something like that. I don’t even have 100 pounds to my name. So I think the switch that a lot of people need to understand and they need to make is that actually smaller events convert to more than large events, and this is something that for people are like, “what? Really?”

Doug: So when you say smaller, what do you mean by smaller? Give me a number.

Simone Vincenzi: Five, 10 people. 15 people. 20 people. And the reason why these events, the small events are great is because you can create such a level of relationship with your clients that you’re not able to create on large events. Large events are all about the experience. When I ran the event with Les Brown a thousand people [inaudible 00:09:50] 500 people. It’s about the experience and the buzz created in the room and they work incredibly well. But you cannot have built the same level of intimacy with your clients like you would on a small event where you can actually talk to them. Where you can give individual attention.

Doug: Yeah, that totally makes sense.

Simone Vincenzi: And also it will cost you less to book a room for five people that even if you want you can invite even at your place and do it in your living room if you don’t want to hire a motel if you have a nice place. And then you convert them as clients because you’re building the relationship, you’re able to understand them and then the more money you have and the more money you make. Then the more money you will have to invest in marketing and infrastructure and yes you can go the bigger events.

But always start small. We’re on more than as you mentioned the value right now from that we run more than 250 so the value was 170. Now, we have 250 events with our companies and it’s just GTeX. And when we started literally, we started with a few speakers like we were coming in and the first room that we had was in an organic farm. It was called the straw bale room. Because literally it was made of straw bale.

Now, they were pigs around. It smells of shit and it was the worst place to run an event but we couldn’t afford anything so that’s where we started. The first event we had two speakers and four people in total which two were the speakers and one was my business partners dad and another one was the only attendee that actually came in and we made sure we handcuffed him in the chair so he couldn’t leave. Because he was the only member of the audience. But then we grew from there and we kept consistent event after event and it worked out.

Doug: So I hear you saying basically start with where you are and what you’ve got and built from there?

Simone Vincenzi: Absolutely, absolutely. I think that and for maybe you did make this mistake yourself Doug, I definitely did. When you are starting the business you’re very naïve and I remember attending a lot of personal development seminars. And say yeah, you know I can make a million in a month and I never had a business before. I have no client but I can make a million in a month. So there was all this hype and a lot of people what they do is they start to like what I was doing. I started running before I could walk and that-

Doug: That makes sense of use. I totally agree and I agree with you because when I first started out if you read my graduation bio. I was going to be a millionaire by the time I was 20 then reality sets in and it’s not that you can’t do it. But I think the [inaudible 00:12:51] is you’ve heard him speak as have I he says it’s a long game.

Simone Vincenzi: Absolutely absolutely it’s a long game and there are some people that able to make in a shorter space of time because they might have already networked. They might have already had the business skills. The sales, the marketing skills that they need. When I started, I didn’t have those. I was managing Michelin Star restaurants so that’s what I was doing. I was having a very successful career indicator in the industry.

I was the youngest Michelin Star restaurant manager in Europe at the age of 19. but then I had this brilliant idea at the age of 22 seven years ago to start my own business and thinking that just because I could make some money in the restaurant business, I actually could make money in my own business doing consulting. And then again as you said reality kicked in. And I became homeless for about six months because I lost everything I had. So that was a good slap and made me realize that I made a step longer than my life.

Doug: I think there are two areas that people error in. One is that they think that they’re going to be an instant millionaire because they watch a lot of the stuff on social media. People standing in front of the Lambo’s and the Porsche’s and the Bugatti’s and they don’t own them. They’re just standing in front of them so you think hey if I do what he does. I’ll buy his course, I’ll have that. That’s one side is that your goal is not right. It’s not in alignment with what’s possible and the other side is people also set goals that are too small. So we got both sides. I’ve always focused on higher-end plans because the line is shorter.

Simone Vincenzi: I get it.

Doug: There are less people going there. They’re going, “I couldn’t go ask for that much money because that’s an outrageous amount of money so I’ll go over here and I’ll ask for a little amount of money.” And there is more people in that little pool than there is in the big pool.

Simone Vincenzi: I completely agree with you. Completely agree with you 100%.

Doug: So in terms of marketing what you’re doing now I know when we chatted earlier you said that your superpower is conversion. So do you want to explain what your secret to conversions is?

Simone Vincenzi: My secret to conversions? If I tell you I will have to kill you. My secret to conversion there is actually no secret. I decided to become really good at selling because that’s the secret to conversion really.

Doug: That’s great. I love that. Because everyone is looking for the secret. 10 secrets to conversion and you say I just became really good at selling.

Simone Vincenzi: What else do you need to do? You sell and you do a lot of consultations and you sell more and you sell more and you sell more and you review and you learn about selling. I think that there is a great book that I’ve read recently which is called When Buyers Say No, which I absolutely love. When Buyers Say No, I don’t remember the author but When Buyers Say No it was brilliant. Because it’s a book that talks about not giving up during the sales conversation. And I think that marketing and sales are very similar.

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Now with marketing, you can push out a lot. You can blast out a lot of information but then it’s all about I think right now they engagement that you create and how you do convert that engagement into paying clients? So something that I do for example when I’m online and I’m putting a social media post. I’ll see the people that are engaging and then they immediately receive a Facebook message if it’s on Facebook or if it’s on LinkedIn they receive a LinkedIn message.

Because they engaged with that content. It means something resonated with them. I’m not selling at that stage. I just want to find out from them what is that that generated the interest? Why did they like that post? What is it they liked about it? And then they open the conversation to say okay what do you need right now, is there anything I can help you with? And that can lead-

Doug: That is great. I love that.

Simone Vincenzi: And that’s why I remember I have a client which I helped her to build a six-figure business in eight months. Now, she was already in a great situation because even she was starting from zero because she was already had a big audience. She already had more than 50,000 people following her on different platforms. And she was making no money and I was like, “I wish I had. I would pay if I had an audience.” Because it’s not a dead audience. They were engaging, they were commenting, they loved her. Absolutely gone nuts for her. And she was making 500, a thousand dollars a month.

So I go, “Are you crazy?” And just by applying those strategies and engaging and having that conversation and then converting them from a consultation one to one or somewhere around the webinar or the seminar then from there you convert them into clients. Then she was able to start making literally within a few months 10K a month.

Doug: That’s great. That’s a great story. I heard John Lee speak once at an event and I think the thing that I remembered most about his comment in terms of businesses. He says do some stuff that’s not scalable and so I took that and applied that to social like you said and so we responded every person who connects with us with a message. The good news is for people thinking “Oh, I couldn’t do that. It’s overwhelming.” It’s the 80-20 rule. Not everybody is going to respond back to you so don’t worry about it.

Simone Vincenzi: That’s a very good point. That’s true and there is some old things that you’re saying contacting them or when someone joins my Facebook group. I send them a 15-second video message personalized. It takes me time? Yes, it takes me time. But how many people send a personalized video message when someone joins a Facebook group?

Doug: Yeah, not very many.

Simone Vincenzi: Not very many.

Doug: Not many people even send a message let along anything else. I know in LinkedIn I have one of my VAs that manages my LinkedIn for me. So we have criteria for accepting your request for people to connect but everybody gets a message and so we’ve changed the message and we’ve said this isn’t a sales pitch. I’m not going to sell you anything. I just want to know why you’re connecting and is there something I can help you with? And that really increases the response rate but I think people are surprised because they’re waiting for the pitch.

Simone Vincenzi: Yes immediately.

Doug: Saying why I’m I going a pitch you? I don’t know anything about you. I don’t know if I can help you.

Simone Vincenzi: Exactly absolutely because sometimes you might be able to even to connect them with someone else that you know in your network or you might not be even the right fit for them or they might actually you might be a dear client for them who knows. So it opens up opportunities.

Doug: Well, I’ll share my biggest [inaudible 00:19:59] then. I connect with a lot of people on LinkedIn and aside from the cold pitches of like hey check out my website. You’ll really like what we do. I probably don’t get more than one or two requests a month to actually get on the phone or connect with somebody at a deeper level where they want to see if they can help me. And for me, it’s super frustrating because I use social media mainly as a shopping platform to identify suppliers and people that I can partner with.

Simone Vincenzi: So here we go. Now, if you’re listening to the show you know how to pitch Doug.

Doug: Just connect. Put the can pitch away. Let’s have a conversation. I was talking to one person I sent her a note back and she went “You’re serious. You’re going to talk to me, I can’t believe you responded and you sent me a link till you can book me.” It’s like, “Yeah, I said we’d connect. This is how we do it so it’s not a big deal.”

Simone Vincenzi: Absolutely. I love that.

Doug: So what are you most excited about as it relates to marketing in the next six to 12 months? The world is changing at a super-fast paced. Everybody seems to be talking about Bitcoin but I’m sure there are a few other things happening in the world other than Bitcoin.

Simone Vincenzi: Probably I’m one of the few people that do not even know anything about Bitcoin. I invested all the money that I have in the different business that we have and on different sides because we have basically four sides of GTeX. We have a digital marketing agency, we do digital marketing, the events company where we manage events, where we teach people how to run events which is a training platform. And also, we work with the recruitment agencies to train their sales staff.

So if I have money when I have money I invest it back in the business because I’m going to have a higher return anyway. But not talking about Bitcoin which is I don’t know why now everyone is freaking Bitcoin expert. But everyone is addicted to Bitcoin as per now. What I’m really excited about for 2018 and in the next six months? And thinking the marketing world is again going back to basics and the personal interaction is going to be more valued than anything else because in a world where everything is going towards automation. Now, you can get Facebook chat box of making toasts for you if you want. So everything is going towards automation, automate this automate that.

People are getting tired of it. So it’s always I think one of the first rules of marketing is doing the opposite of what everyone else in your market does and go in and as you’re doing reaching out personally to people inviting them to phone calls. Inviting them to live events and invest time in other people in your team. Hire other people in your team to have those conversations when you’re at the stage to scale up and you don’t have to do them by yourself because of course, you have other stuff to do as well.

But that’s I think the things are going and personally, we’re using automation and we’re using it not hugely. We don’t have complex automated things but we make sure that our database is contacted regularly by real people and we’re finding that people are responding well because as I say well I didn’t expect that.

Doug: I think you’re right that sets you aside from everybody else in the industry who’s going to try to do everything and I think sometimes like you said it’s fear people that won’t speak in stage or people that want to talk to the customers that are afraid of rejection. So they somehow say hey I’ll just send an email that’s way easier that I don’t feel the rejection. But I get a ton of email but the reality is it’s not getting the response of picking up the phone and talking to somebody else.

Simone Vincenzi: Thank you and exactly because also we’re talking about conversion again. When you are having an automated email funnel or even Chatbox funnel. Chatbox now we are using to they’re amazing because the open rate is 70-80%. 40% click-through rate. They say this is awesome. So I’m making sure that every funnel I have there is an element of email and chart box integrated but then you need to add numbers. Because you lose people along the way and to have one sale online on an automated email from a cold funnel or from a cold database or a warmish database but even from a hot database.

You have a 0.001% of people in the database that will buy. The moment that you send an email. So if you have a hundred people in your database it means that you virtually make no sales. So unless you have already a few thousand people there. It’s much more difficult to make that sale. And in particular, if you list is not growing fast enough because then you might do an offer a week. But if your list doesn’t cross by hundreds or thousands a week then you’re already out. Because you’ll burn your database.

Doug: I like to use automation for qualifying but when people show interest like you said then I’d like to have a conversation. I like to whatever I can intervene and get the automation off and have a conversation because obviously, there is a real person that [that 00:25:24] responded.

Simone Vincenzi: Absolutely and just by doing that you can have a nice seven-figure business and you can hire other people that will make more phone calls. That will have this personal touch and suddenly you are better than your competition as long as your product is great. Because then we’re talking about the conversation but you need to have a great product and a great service.

Doug: Absolutely yeah.

Simone Vincenzi: [inaudible 00:25:49] going to last long.

Doug: That’s right it’s limited sale then you’re done.

Simone Vincenzi: Thank you. That’s what I’m excited about and the other thing I’m excited about is virtual reality and augmented reality how that will be integrated into the market or in the marketing space. I think there is a going to be a lot of space for it. We know nothing about it so I’m the least qualified to talk about the implication and user and so on. But the thing is I have experienced it and there is definitely going to be a place for it.

Doug: The marketplace is definitely shifting and I think you’re right. I just had a guest on earlier and we’re talking about VR and VR and exactly the same thing. The consumer expectation is a lot higher and with those tools, you’re either going to use them and win some business or you’re just going to keep plugging along and someone else will come along and beat you out.

Simone Vincenzi: Absolutely. I agree with you 100%.

Doug: So who’s one guest that you think I should have on the podcast?

Simone Vincenzi: Let me be honest. I wasn’t expecting this question.

Doug: I know it was a trick question.

Simone Vincenzi: That was a trick question. You know what I’ll see if I can make that introduction for you. I know I interviewed I don’t know if you have already interviewed him. It’s Jeff Hoffman. He’s a billionaire that I interviewed on my podcast eXplode Your Coaching Biz show and it was a great interview on how to scale a business. It was brilliant, and of course, not everyone is a billionaire on this planet. There are many millionaires but very few billionaires. So I listened to that guy very closely and I loved every second of the interview. Great storyteller and very approachable person. So if you know him or otherwise, I’m happy to make an introduction.

Doug: That would be great if you make an introduction and do you want to share the podcast episode so our listeners can tune into your podcast and find that?

Simone Vincenzi: Ask me other questions while I’m looking for it.

Doug: No worries. You send it to me I’ll get it up on the show notes. So let’s ask something that you probably don’t have to look up. What’s the best place and the best way for people to find you?

Simone Vincenzi: Best place for people to find me they are tea places. One if you are lightening to this podcast which I think was brilliant. I loved that interview then you probably like podcast yourself and I ran a podcast called the eXplode Your Coaching Biz show. So it’s eXplode Your Coaching Biz show. Let me repeat one more time so you get it. eXplode Your Coaching Biz show. You can find it on iTunes and Stitcher. And we interview other experts, coaches, speakers, trainers that are running six-seven figure eight figures coaching businesses and speaking businesses and ask them what business model do they use? What do they do behind the scenes that works for them?

And we go into every detail a lot of details in their practices so if you like that stuff on the interview very conversational but not much storytelling. It’s quite tactical. We go into business stuff then you will love you eXplode Your Coaching Biz show or the other option is if you want to find as well if you like a community, you like connecting with other experts and other people in this industry. Then we have a Facebook group that guess what it’s called? The eXplode Your Coaching Biz. So you can find that on Facebook very easily.

Then there is the last thing that I have for you which is you’re interested in running seminars or webinars and selling for the stage so selling one too many but doing that without being a douche bag. So without using all the sleazy manipulative techniques then I’ve created a checklist for you where it teaches you step by step how to create pitch and how to position yourself, how to make the clothes. So that whole process doesn’t feel awkward and you get clients and you will find a link in the show notes here.

Doug: Excellent. Well, that’s great advice. So there you go listeners. We had a great interview. There is a lot of information there. I would encourage you to re-listen to this episode and take it to heart. Get out there and just get started. As usual, we’ll have this interview transcribed. We’ll have all the show notes. We’ll have all of the links to all the resources that we talked about. So I just want to say thank you so much for taking time out of your day and sharing with our audience.

Simone Vincenzi: Thank you for inviting me. It’s been a pleasure. It was a fantastic interview and thank you for your questions and for giving me this opportunity.

Doug: You’re very welcome. So make sure you subscribe in iTunes. If you liked this episode leave us a review and don’t forget to sign up to our email list. So thanks very much, Simone. Have an awesome day.

Simone Vincenzi: Brilliant. A great day too.

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Resources mention in this episode:

eXplode Your Coaching Biz show

GTeX

Simone’s TedX talk

Simone’s Facebook

Simone’s LinkedIn

Simone’s YouTube

Book Mentioned: When Buyers Say No – by Tom Hopkins  (Author), Ben Katt  (Author)

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