Suz Chadwick [00:00:00]:
Welcome back to the Brand Builders Lab podcast. Amazing to have you here. I am very excited to introduce our guest today. You know that March is all about sales and money, and there is somebody that I know loves talking about those two topics, and that is our guest today. So Peter Serras is the founder of Professional Babe, the creator of Give Good Email, and the host of everyone's favorite business podcast, the the business fondle. With 15 years entrepreneurial experience in the bag and all her Virgo wisdom, she's been described as a business oracle and the go to for meaty, practical and bold business advisory. I have known Peter for a couple of years now. We have seen each other out and about at wine bars and networking events and all the rest of it.

Suz Chadwick [00:00:46]:
And when it comes to sales, I know that this is something that she loves and something that she's great at. And she teaches as well, is all about email marketing. And so today we're really talking about how she has used her ability to pay attention to what clients need in order to preempt their questions, their needs to sell more. And so that's what we're gonna be talking about today. I think you're gonna get a lot out of this episode. So listen, without further ado, let's just dive straight in. Peter, welcome to the Brand Builders Lab podcast.

Peta Serras [00:01:22]:
I am so excited. Thank you for having me.

Suz Chadwick [00:01:24]:
Oh, my pleasure. I literally just said to you, and I shared this, I think, on my stories as well, where I thought, I really want to have, like, some dynamic people on the podcast in March. I want to talk about sales and money and all the juicy things. And I was trying to think of who to ask. I had one other person that I was thinking of, and then you popped up in my LinkedIn. It was totally the best timing, and I was like, of course I need to speak to you about sales and money, because I love that you talk about this a lot.

Peta Serras [00:01:53]:
Well, it's. I think it's so important. Like, I think we forget that sales comes before the service. And I know for me, I always was like, why am I quiet? I'm so good at what I do. And I'm like, yeah, because you have to sell. You have to sell it. And I think we forget that.

Suz Chadwick [00:02:07]:
Lesson number one. Yes. And I think a lot of people struggle with that as well, because sometimes we're like, but I'm really good. Like, I know I'm really good. Do I actually need to tell people, like, how embarrassing that I need to tell people that I'm really good at what I do.

Peta Serras [00:02:23]:
I think it also comes like down to, you know, you open reels and you see content where people are like, if you have a no brainer offer, it will just sell. And I think that this gets really incredible. Service providers and business owners in this mentality of, well, I just need to obsess about making this the perfect offer. It's not the case. Otherwise there wouldn't be people that were terrible at what they do that was so busy and booked out. And it's because they're actually amazing salespeople.

Suz Chadwick [00:02:52]:
Yeah, 100%. Okay, cool. We're going to get into all of it. Listen for my audience that don't know you, where have you been? But tell us a bit about you and how you got here and what you do.

Peta Serras [00:03:06]:
Well. Hello, everyone. I'm Peter Sarris. I'm the founder of Professional Babe, giver of Good email, host of the Business Bundle podcast. I've been in business. Oh my gosh, it's going to be 17 years in June. Isn't that, isn't that. Well, 17 years.

Peta Serras [00:03:22]:
I'm like a business geriatric. Someone's going to have to get me a walking frame. Like, where's my lifetime achievement award now? I didn't start out doing this. I actually started out with a Pilates studio in my hometown of Maitland. And I grew that business, scaled it online, created a Pilates dvd. Again, geriatric business owner. Like, who has a, who has a fitness dvd? Serious. I also had television commercials.

Suz Chadwick [00:03:48]:
Oh, I thought you're so. I love it. I'm so here for it. It's so good. So good. You've been, you've been around. You've seen it all.

Peta Serras [00:03:59]:
I've seen it all. And I think this is where. And I know we've had conversations in the past about this, around how I think sometimes business owners really have this reluctance to sell because you used to sell on the phone. Was that.

Suz Chadwick [00:04:11]:
Yes, my first. So my first job was Kohl's, but then my next job was that I was on a telemarketing company. Motor neuron disease. So collecting money for charity.

Peta Serras [00:04:26]:
Yeah.

Suz Chadwick [00:04:26]:
Was like my first job out of. After coleslaw.

Peta Serras [00:04:31]:
Yeah. And that's. That's tough gig.

Suz Chadwick [00:04:33]:
That's hardcore. Yeah.

Peta Serras [00:04:35]:
You just threw yourself in.

Suz Chadwick [00:04:37]:
Yeah. But you know something? And I think this is the interesting thing. You don't know what you don't know.

Peta Serras [00:04:43]:
Yeah.

Suz Chadwick [00:04:43]:
Like you don't know that it's hard when you've not been in sales before or you've not tried to sell anything. Somebody was just like, here's the script. These are people that have donated before. Like, we. We've got targets where we want to raise this amount of money. And I think the one thing that I just really learned from that job was the more that I could get them to tell me why they cared and, like, why it affected them or why they had donated. I was like one of the top salespeople. Not because I was trying to sell, but because I was listening.

Suz Chadwick [00:05:19]:
And so then it just was automatic for them to want to give again. So, yeah, so many lessons from. Yeah. And then I was in recruitment and sales and all the rest of it. But, yeah, so interesting. I actually really love sales.

Peta Serras [00:05:32]:
I love it, too. If I'm ever in a bad mood or I'm upset, I'm like, you just need to sell something and you'll feel a little better.

Suz Chadwick [00:05:39]:
Yeah, that's so true. I mean, when you get a sale, you're like, it's so good.

Peta Serras [00:05:44]:
Yeah.

Suz Chadwick [00:05:44]:
Yeah. So tell me about your sales journey. So when you started the Pilates studio and your DVDs, which I love, like, what was your go to? How were you getting people in?

Peta Serras [00:05:58]:
So I put an ad in the newspaper, which it's really funny now. You see people obsess about Instagram captions. And I remember walking into the Maitland Mercury with my mom, and they gave me this little bit of paper.

Suz Chadwick [00:06:10]:
Mom.

Peta Serras [00:06:11]:
And I had an argument because I had to write down. And I have like. She says I have really messy handwriting. She's like, they're gonna make a mistake. And I'm writing this ad at the counter. And then my mom had to rewrite it. Cause she's like, there's gonna be a typo or something. And it's so funny that I back.

Peta Serras [00:06:25]:
You back what you said. It's like, you don't know what you don't know. I was like, I'll put an ad in the newspaper. I'll just, like, I'll just walk in and do it. I'm on the way to the shops. This feels like a good idea. And it was. I think it was 50.

Peta Serras [00:06:36]:
And I got one sale, and I actually ended up having to refund it. So then after that, I was like, right, we're gonna have to change the market. Like, I was an ex cheerleader who had opened a Pilates studio in my regional town. So I'm like, where is my market? I'm like, MySpace. And that's how I started. And I also was doing outreach at the Belmore, which was our local pub on A Friday night. So I was telling everyone. I'm like, you have to come to my Pilates classes.

Peta Serras [00:07:03]:
I was telling everyone. And that's really how it started. It's so interesting because I was actually in the Maitland Business Chamber magazine because no one was doing social media marketing back then. It was very. It's like if you had a business, you would advertise in like a. Like a traditional way. You would put, like, television, commercial, radio, print, or there was flyers.

Suz Chadwick [00:07:24]:
So what year are we talking?

Peta Serras [00:07:26]:
Oh, gosh, 2009.

Suz Chadwick [00:07:29]:
Okay. So I mean, social media started in 2004. Ish.

Peta Serras [00:07:32]:
Yeah.

Suz Chadwick [00:07:33]:
Yeah. Okay.

Peta Serras [00:07:34]:
No one was really doing it, like.

Suz Chadwick [00:07:35]:
Well, you had MySpace. Yeah, yeah.

Peta Serras [00:07:37]:
So I was on MySpace. And then I think it was that year that people were moving across to Facebook. I started. If there's one thing I regret. So do you ever look back and just have these huge business regrets? I would have had one of the first Pilates groups because I was like, let's start. It was like a page, and then they changed it to a group. And I was like, that could have had millions of people.

Suz Chadwick [00:08:00]:
I could do a whole podcast on business regrets. But we're not going to go there. Yeah.

Peta Serras [00:08:05]:
So. And it's really interesting, but it's kind of.

Suz Chadwick [00:08:07]:
It's.

Peta Serras [00:08:08]:
It's changed over time. But I found back then I could get by doing the same thing for about a year or two, when now. I feel like that stuff back then had a lot more longevity in approach when now you continually need to innovate. And I think that's where a lot of people are finding it a bit more challenging because, you know, everything changes so quickly. Like, you look at all the features that have now been added to Instagram. We've got threads, we have TikTok. Like, there's. There's always a new platform or the platform has a new feature.

Peta Serras [00:08:40]:
And I think because of that, we actually need to continually adapt our approach and how we're actually approaching sales in our business.

Suz Chadwick [00:08:47]:
Yeah. Well, we have to continue because obviously you're not doing Pilates anymore.

Peta Serras [00:08:53]:
I'm not doing Pilates anymore.

Suz Chadwick [00:08:57]:
So then what happened?

Peta Serras [00:08:59]:
Oh, like after Pilates.

Suz Chadwick [00:09:00]:
Yeah.

Peta Serras [00:09:01]:
Okay. So then I started a side gig when I had my studio, which is so funny that I had a. I had a business. I'm like, let me start a side business. I'm not busy enough. And it was called Professional Babe. And I wanted an outlet to write about all of the, as my friend said, all the vapid shit that you like talking about, which was, like, looking hot. And food and skincare and modeling and beauty and I loved it.

Peta Serras [00:09:24]:
I actually went to France on an all expenses paid trip to write about micellar water of all things. That's so weird when you tell people that they look at me like it's made up.

Suz Chadwick [00:09:36]:
That's so good. Yeah, love it.

Peta Serras [00:09:39]:
And then in that I was so.

Suz Chadwick [00:09:41]:
Was it a block?

Peta Serras [00:09:42]:
Yeah, it was a blog, I had a YouTube channel and then I was writing articles for magazines. So that was Pilates based articles. I sold my business in 2017, ended up in a pyramid scheme. And it's really funny that I actually really was great at the pyramid scheme because I was amazing at sales like that Network marketing is all sales and it's, it's people that, that do very well in that they actually approach it with a sales mentality where if your sales aren't where they need to be at the end of month, you're not getting bonus and then it expires. And some people, that's thrilling. I was one of those people. Some people hated it. And I worked out in that, that, you know, the, the company like is very old school with how they do things.

Peta Serras [00:10:24]:
It's also very Americanized and for me I'm like, no, I need to get out there. I need to be teaching as many workshops as possible. And I had created tools for myself in the way of email automations to onboard new customers that would then, you know, be educated about everything that we learned in class. If they wanted to host a class, here's what they needed to know. And it really mapped out this perfect customer journey. And I found myself all of a sudden being really quiet because everyone was nurtured and they were buying from email which freed my time up to travel Australia wide. How I ended up in Melbourne teaching classes and people were like, how are you building a business like this? Your output is just phenomenal. And I ended up selling my templates and people had amazing experience with that.

Peta Serras [00:11:10]:
I created a course called the Social Sell which was about like social media marketing and selling and that really formed the business that I have today. So I rebranded Professional Babe, turn that into a consultancy because I had like all the trademark and the domain and everything. And the people that I met in network marketing were my first clients and they are so loyal that I have had some of them and this was back in 2020 that have returned to me now because they're like the results that you gave me back then. And the advice has really, it hasn't changed so much. You know, I feel like now when we have a lot of trends. It's like something that is always going to be true is good business advice. And then like I always come back to the advice that you told me because it's still to this day works.

Suz Chadwick [00:11:53]:
How did you know to write the emails to Automate when you were in the mlm?

Peta Serras [00:12:01]:
It's so funny because when I had my Pilates studio, I did nothing with email. I hated it. I hate, like, I hated it because I'd spent all this time writing a newsletter. It feels like it would take me a whole day and then five people had unsubscribed and I'm like, fuck this. Like, I don't wanna, I don't wanna keep doing this. This is really bad ROI, right? Like you've got 50 classes a week. I've got like 130 regulars. I've got this side business and I'm spending a whole day writing this newsletter that looks like.

Peta Serras [00:12:26]:
But with the, with network marketing, I was, I would travel every week because I worked out. I was like, this is really fun because if I travel to Brisbane for work, it's tax deductible. And that's why I loved it because I'm like, I can go everywhere that I want to go. I just need to keep teach a couple of essential oil workshops. But because I had such a good sales process, like, I was like, look, this is going to be an incredible workshop. Some of you are going to buy. Some of you are just here because your aunties made you come. Some of you are like, what is this pyramid scheme? I'm really scared, like, and I would really lean into it and I would address everyone in the room.

Peta Serras [00:13:04]:
And I had incredible sales because I think I was like, let's kind of just poke fun at this, but let's also meet the needs of the people who are very serious about how lemon oil is going to change their lives. And I would walk away from a weekend with like sometimes 20 customers, which was a lot. And I was like, there is no way that I can invite people and organize my next workshop and travel and keep on top of all of, all of my, my customer work. So for me, what I did, I, I mapped out what was happening currently and then what I wanted to happen. And I worked out that every client came to me with the same questions after. They're like, I've. When do you think it's going to be here? Where's the postman going to leave it? Like, stuff like that.

Suz Chadwick [00:13:56]:
Like.

Peta Serras [00:13:57]:
And I, back then people were ringing me on my Phone. So I would be on the phone all day feeling like that I was answering 20 of the same questions. And what happened is when I automated this, when, you know, someone would buy, I would put their order in on the Doterra website and then I would add them into this email automation. And it was really simple. I think it was like eight emails. So once a week they'd get an email and it would really address all of the questions that they had ahead of time. So if I found that people were asking me something around like day seven to ten, great, let's send them an email on day five. And then what happened from there is they all thought I was psychic because they're like, I was just thinking this, but I had had at this stage, I think maybe over 200 customers before I implemented this.

Peta Serras [00:14:39]:
And I noticed that sometimes you get a really random outlier question that I'd be like, I don't even know where you got that from, but sure, I'll answer. But most people had the same questions. And it was something where for me, I was like, I didn't really know if it was gonna work, but I was like, I have to try something because I'm exhausted and I'm working so much. And I'm also like, I just wanna sell. Yeah, I wanna be teaching workshops and I wanna sell. And it worked. It worked actually better because I found that I could get in this really good sales energy and I could write these emails and have them send out. And it's like, I wasn't having someone ring me when I was in the middle of something or in the grocery store mood.

Peta Serras [00:15:22]:
So I found because of that and because these emails were crafted in that energy, I had time to check them. They converted really well. And if they didn't, I would just change them and just tweak them a little. So if I found people were asking me questions, say maybe on week three, I'm like, okay, cool. How can we address that in like week two's email? And it did. It did so well. It actually scared me because all of a sudden my phone, it's like. I'd had all these workshops on the weekend.

Peta Serras [00:15:47]:
Monday rolled around and I was. My phone didn't ring and I was. I was freaking out. I was like, oh, my God, I bet the frunk had office and everyone wants a refund. And I was just checking in with a couple of like, oh, my God, I love that email you sent. Thank you so much. I was wondering how I could log in and check out those products. You said and then I was like, oh, okay, cool.

Peta Serras [00:16:05]:
So what was really nice is I obviously had this in person approach where I was selling in person. But then the secondary effect was the fact that I cloned myself that people loved. And I put that in the emails. So it was like that they were sent for me, which they were. People knew that they could hit reply and they were still gonna get me. If they had a question, they could still ring me. And it, it helped me really grow my business. I think I had over 500 personal customers, which is high.

Peta Serras [00:16:34]:
Like, I think I had a doctor's clinic at Monash IVF that was one of my customers. Because I'm like, I wanna go corporate. I'm like, we're gonna do this. I actually even had a coffee with one of the people that was in sales at Virgin and I'm like, how can we get the essential oils on the plane? And she was like, look, I don't know if we can do that, but I wouldn't be one of your customers.

Suz Chadwick [00:16:56]:
I love it. You can sell ice to Eskimos. So good, so good. And so getting into your business now we were talking just before we kicked off. Is that what are you seeing when it comes to selling in 2025? I almost said 2024. What. What are you seeing that's shifting? What are your customers talking to you about around the sales landscape right now?

Peta Serras [00:17:23]:
I think that a lot of people are selling reactively and I think this is where, you know, especially if anyone started a business around Covid, like around 2020, it was, it was easier because everyone was moving online. And if you were good at online business, you knew that you could create content. You had an advantage of all of the business owners that had an in person presence that didn't really have that skill set. And then I think what happened is as we were getting out of that, probably towards like 2022, 2023, people like offices hard. And it was interesting for me. And maybe you found this as well because you've been in business for a while. I'm like, well, this isn't hard. This is, it's back to normal a bit.

Peta Serras [00:18:05]:
We dip down a little, but then it's like we've kind of just leveled out to, to how things were with the studio. And I think now something that I'm seeing is people think that one. They can just have like a one channel approach. So it's like, great, I'm just going to post on Instagram and that's how I'm going to sell. And the problem is with that. Anytime that you have an algorithm that you have to battle, it's like, you know, this is your livelihood. It's not a hobby.

Suz Chadwick [00:18:31]:
It's.

Peta Serras [00:18:31]:
It's not something that it doesn't matter if it doesn't do well, especially if you're living off your business. You need to make sure that you are safeguarding that. And I think that we have some people that have put all of their eggs in the Instagram basket, and now they're like, oh, my gosh, I can't sell. And then they're like, let me just invest all of this time and money in Facebook ads, or let me just invest all of this here. So I'm seeing that happen. I'm seeing people kind of accept how things are because they're like, oh, I put a post out on Instagram and people didn't buy. Oh, well, no one wants it. And it's so funny for me hearing this because I'm like, she seems to be a bit more proactive.

Peta Serras [00:19:10]:
So, you know, what I think is working well now is people that have a genuine care for their customers and they're happy to do a little bit more groundwork. And this is. I know you mentioned on your Instagram the other day that you can't you message people on your new followers on Instagram and does that work well for you, like, doing this?

Suz Chadwick [00:19:32]:
Yeah, but I. Because I think, you know something, I just. Instagram, for me, is my primary platform. I do post in other places. And I've said this to clients before. It's like stories. Like, people who follow me, people who are there, I just see them as my community. When I get on stories in the morning, I'm not getting on to post content.

Suz Chadwick [00:19:57]:
I'm getting on to say, hi. Like, I'm like, morning, how you doing? This is what's happening. It's as if, if I met you for coffee, it's what I would sort of say. So when somebody follows me, I don't take that for granted. I'm just like, hey, thanks so much for the follow. And then I'll usually offer them something like, I've got a stories prompt at the moment that's free, obviously, because I want to list build. I'm not stupid. Like, I, you know, I'm on Instagram to attract a community and clients.

Suz Chadwick [00:20:28]:
So I'm like, but it's permission marketing as well, where I'm like, I've, you know, I've got this free story prompt. If it's something of interest, let me know. But so great to have you here. And then they tell me if they want it, and if they do, I'll send it.

Peta Serras [00:20:40]:
Yeah, I love that. And what I think I like about that is I think that, you know, a lot of people approach sales reactively and they're like, let me put this out and let me kind of see who's interested, and then I'll send them the link. And I think in some ways, like, everyone's using manychat, and I. I think it is amazing to automate a lot of what's happening in business, but I think sometimes, and I don't know if you're finding this, people are skipping over these core skills of actually learning how to have a conversation and be a real authentic person and develop that connection. Because I think that people think that they can bypass that. You know, it's like, oh, let me put up a post. And you just need to. To.

Peta Serras [00:21:20]:
To comment this, and then it'll send through. And I don't. I don't have to have a conversation. And they probably tell themselves if this person has a question, they'll just write back. But sometimes people don't. They. And. And I think, especially if you're in the B2B space, I think a lot of people have been burned by working with people that have had a really beautiful, shiny online presence.

Peta Serras [00:21:42]:
And then the. When they've had an actual dealing with the person, they're like, oh, this isn't what I thought it would be. And what I like about what you've done, you've shown what it is like to work with you and the fact that you are a caring and attentive person. So it's like this beautiful preview. Like, yes, there is an agenda getting people on your mail, but, you know, they're going to know what it's like to work with you. And I'm the same. I'm a fan of, like, sliding in with a bit of a voice message. I even always say, hey, if this has wrecked your day, if you're someone that hates voice messages, I'm so sorry.

Peta Serras [00:22:14]:
PayPal you a cup of coffee? I can make. I make a joke about it because I'm like, if people don't even like that, they're gonna hate working with me.

Suz Chadwick [00:22:20]:
Because I agree. Yeah. Because that's you. Me.

Peta Serras [00:22:24]:
Yeah.

Suz Chadwick [00:22:26]:
Yeah. I mean, when you're like, what's your primary platforms? What's your. I know obviously email is your go to.

Peta Serras [00:22:34]:
Yeah.

Suz Chadwick [00:22:35]:
But what are you doing online at the moment?

Peta Serras [00:22:38]:
Yeah. So Instagram. Because most of my community is There, that's the first one getting people then onto my email list. I also am posting a lot more on LinkedIn, which is really funny because that's how I, I think for me, I just was like, oh, they're out there. This feels like a lot of extra effort. Well, I'm like, okay, hold on. Why don't we just repurpose all of this amazing content that you've got? You know, start with that, start with a really easy entry point before you go into these thought leadership pieces. And that's what I've done.

Peta Serras [00:23:08]:
I was doing stuff on threads, but for me, I preferred to kind of use that as like a personal business outlet and not, not a sales avenue. I get so much from referrals though, and happy customers and those I would say most of, most of my leads coming through my business have come from, you know, podcast interviews, doing workshops for people. I know. If I do a workshop for someone, I don't even sell on the workshop. I always make a sale. And you know, the last one that I did, I ended up getting someone in my mastermind and made it $8,000 sale from an hour time commitment. So that has been a really, really good referral for me. I also have a co working space and last year I held an event every month.

Peta Serras [00:23:53]:
You came to one of them?

Suz Chadwick [00:23:54]:
I did come to one.

Peta Serras [00:23:55]:
And again, it's not really a sales based event. It's like there is like a two minute little call to action. What I do is I follow people up and I, I look at where everyone is, the questions that they ask, the goals that they have, and sometimes I'll be a bit more proactive. I'll be like, you know, thank you so much for coming to the event. I know you have this business. Why don't we catch up for a coffee and like, just talk more about like what you do and it'd be great to get to know you. You know, sometimes I might do that with people. Other times, you know, people will just stay in my orbit or they'll go on my email list.

Peta Serras [00:24:28]:
So everyone kind of has a bit of a different approach. I don't have this blanket thing where I'm like, great new person, then do this. And I think that that's come from doing this continually. You know, it's not like I, I turned up and started selling last month. This has been something I've been doing since 2009. So, you know, doing that, you kind of can work out like the, the different ways that you want to sell. And sometimes it is And I think this is where it can put people off. It is a bit of a long game activity.

Suz Chadwick [00:24:58]:
Yeah.

Peta Serras [00:24:58]:
You know, I saw someone share that. Oh, it's going to take someone seven touch points to buy. And it's really interesting Suez because I have had some people that have been on my email list for, I would say, two and a half years. I follow them up regularly. Anytime we have a free event around email marketing, I'll invite them. They've got every freebie and they're still not ready to buy. And I think you're gonna have some people that come in, they are so certain and they understand this is for me. I have the budget, I'm ready to invest.

Peta Serras [00:25:26]:
But you're also gonna have some people that take a little bit longer. And I think sometimes we assume that everyone, if we do a good job, is going to be ready to buy then and there. Sometimes that just isn't the case for a variety of different reasons.

Suz Chadwick [00:25:40]:
We call them the tortoises and the hares.

Peta Serras [00:25:43]:
Yes.

Suz Chadwick [00:25:43]:
Yeah. The people that buy, like, they. I. So I get clients, it happens a lot during holiday periods as well, where they find the podcast and then they binge me for like a few weeks and then they contact me and they're like, let's go. Which I love. I'm like, okay, cool. And then, yeah, I've got people who are like, I waited two years to work with you, which I kind of regret now, but. But I'm here.

Suz Chadwick [00:26:07]:
And I think you've just got to. I think you've just got to be of the mindset that you're constantly nurturing until they're in a place and obviously being proactive and calls to action, et cetera, but just knowing that you'll have tortoises and you'll have hairs and you've got to kind of work with both. But I'd love to know, because you're. You're like the queen of email. When I think about emailing, what's working for you or what's working well from a sales perspective, what kind of email cadence do you have?

Peta Serras [00:26:38]:
Great question. So the first thing that I think is really important is you have to have. If someone joins your email list, they have to go through an automation. This is something that I see. People think, I'll do this later, or they hardly put any effort in. They whack it together. And this is wild to me because this is someone's first experience. I liken it to.

Peta Serras [00:26:58]:
It's like, this is the early stages of dating and what we want is we, we want people to understand what you do, how you do it, what your brand is about and if they unsubscribe, that's fine, right? I want you to be as polarizing or as authentic as as you can be. And I'm just trying to remember the stat but I think it's something like your welcome flow can get up to 320% more revenue compared to a standard campaign which is just wild. So that for a lot of businesses is completely underutilized real estate in terms of a good cadence. This comes back to how often you desire to email outside of that flow. So I may have a client and they're like oh, I just want to email once a month. And I'm like okay, hold on, do it a bit more regularly. Because you know, if we look at metrics, right, like let's just go with an open rate of 25% and you're emailing once a month, then that means that someone will probably open and read that email once every four months. So we want to give people more of a chance to have an understanding about what you do and how you do it.

Peta Serras [00:28:04]:
I usually email my whole list once a week and then within that list I have little segments so groups of subscribers. So this could be people that have downloaded a particular lead magnet or a particular group of clients. So my clients that have give good email or people that have been on a wait list or even I'll have like a spicy segment. So people that have been active in say like the last 30 days and I will email a segment probably one to two times a week. So when you actually look in my email marketing dash, it looks like I'm sending about three campaigns a week. Sometimes it's five. Not everyone gets all of those. And that works really, really quite well for me.

Peta Serras [00:28:47]:
So what I think businesses need is they need to have the automations because that is you cloned. That is like if we go back to network marketing, that was what I implemented when I made the sale. And this is also something really, really good for people to have is, you know, I'm attempting to renovate at the moment and look at furniture and suze. It is wild to me. The amount of showrooms that I've been in with an appointment, I've gone in there, they've taken my details, I've spent an hour with them. No one follows me up. No, like no one. I'm actually at a point where I'm like, do I say something to these businesses?

Suz Chadwick [00:29:22]:
Because they're going to Be near clients.

Peta Serras [00:29:26]:
And I think I'm really shocked at this because there's so many people that spend a lot of money on like top of funnel marketing. They spend a lot of money on like meta ads. But a lot of people actually have incredible leads. And you know, if you're a physical business, this is people coming in the door. If you're an online business, there's people going onto your email list. And this is something I've started to do now and that is work a lot more. You know, I was working quite proactively but I've even taken it to the next level. So what I've done in my inbox is I have different little labels on the side in Gmail and if I have someone that comes through, I've got a business audit called Hot Business, I will put them in a category to follow up.

Peta Serras [00:30:10]:
If I have people that come through on a lead magnet, I'll follow them up. If I have a new business that is coming in on my newsletter, I'll look and see like the end of the handle, like what that domain is. I'll go and follow them on LinkedIn. And this is something that people can do if they have like a small flow of people joining the email list. Like if you have hundreds of people a day, this is really hard to do. But this is something that if you have a nice little steady stream of leads, fantastic because no one does it. You know, you are doing the proactive reach outs on Instagram, which I love. You know, I'm following the people on LinkedIn.

Peta Serras [00:30:47]:
I check in with them either on email or if I know that they follow me on Instagram, I will just shoot them through a direct message. And what I'm doing here is I'm not actually selling. I'm starting the relationship and I'm just checking in and I'm saying, how did you go with it? Please let me know if you have any questions. You know, I've got a podcast and if you actually want some really good episode recommendations in line with this, I'll send them through. And where that's really helpful is in those episodes that I'm recommending, I'm selling something. So I know that they're going and they're going to listen to this episode. And in that if I'm talking about email marketing, I'm going to talk about the fact that I have a program called Give Good Email. So although I'm technically not selling what they're listening to, in that next step it will sell.

Peta Serras [00:31:31]:
And this is something as well that you can do with email marketing and a way to use email a lot more proactively. If you're emailing, one of the best things that you can do from a sales perspective is to actually leave stuff out of the email and get people to click to that next step. I have seen some entrepreneurs with fantastic emails. The only downside is they're putting too much information in. So what's happening is they're sending these emails out to their subscribers and you know it just say it's a new course that they've released and they've put in or here are the, here are the dates, here's when it's starting, here's the price, who's it for? The problem is with that they've delivered a mini sales page so they may have people that open the email a few times to check and read, but the only time that they're probably going to click through to the sales page is if they have more questions or they're ready to buy. One of the easiest things that you can do is to just leave the price out of the email and get them to click to the next step. Because then what that's doing, it's cat categorizing that person as a warm or a hot lead. This is what I do.

Peta Serras [00:32:33]:
I add a tag in my software and I go through and I contact every single one of those people Adore beauty something the other day where they sent me an email of all of these new products they had and guess what? They didn't put the price in. So if I wanted to see, oh, what's this about? How much is it? I have to go and then I have to click through to that sales page. Now the cool thing is when you do that, especially for e commerce based businesses, you can do a lot of stuff with email marketing. You can have things called browse abandoned flows which you don't even need to put it in your shopping cart. But if you are just on a particular product for a length of time, they'll remarket to you with an email about that. So this is where you can get really strategic to actually help with the sales process. You know, E commerce will do that and automate it. Service based businesses, especially if you are a personal brand, this is where you have so much potential to actually go through and like follow all of these people up.

Peta Serras [00:33:29]:
And as I said, it doesn't need to be. And it's funny, I don't know if you have this where people like I don't want to be salesy and it blows my mind because I'm like, yeah, but you are a salesperson. As a business owner, like, you have to be salesy.

Suz Chadwick [00:33:40]:
Yeah.

Peta Serras [00:33:40]:
And I think sometimes this is where it's like, you know what? Just rip the band aid off. If it's going to feel scary, just do it enough until it starts to feel like second nature.

Suz Chadwick [00:33:50]:
Yeah, yeah. You gotta build the muscle. And I just. I think a lot of people, like, entrepreneurship is so glorified these days where you can just make a million dollars in a month, that I think that people don't realize how much sales is involved. Like, the fact that they actually need to, like, make an offer and say, like, here's the thing. Would you like to buy it? And everything else that goes with that. But, yeah, I love that. And I think that having that combination of the passive, where you've got the email sequence that you've thought through, you're clear on, you know, the stories that you're telling, the offer that might be made at different stages, all the rest of it, and working through that is great.

Suz Chadwick [00:34:35]:
But then being proactive when they click it to go and then follow them up, I think is so important. And I think that because the entrepreneurial space is very noisy and busy right now, when we do get people that are interested in what it is that we do, I do think we have to value it. I think that's been one of the biggest issues that I've seen is I call it lazy marketing, where people just assume that somebody knows that if they want to buy, they'll just buy that. I don't really need to do anything. Like, it'll just happen. And I don't. I personally don't think that's the case. Like, I think that you've got to have both where you're being somebody that's active in the process of selling what it is that you have.

Suz Chadwick [00:35:17]:
But the question that I wanted to ask as well, from you, to kind of wrap up as well, is more around money and sales mindset. You know, like, what's your mindset around pricing? What's your mindset around earning money? Like, I'd love to know. I just love this conversation so much. I.

Peta Serras [00:35:42]:
It's so funny. I. I love money, and I like, I really love money to a point where people will say it sometimes and they're like, they'll. You can tell there's a real negative undertone. But I had. I was interviewed on someone else's podcast yesterday, and we're talking about money. I said, I love Money, but it's actually not my main driver. Like, I've gotten to a point now where I'm actually very neutral to it, and I pride myself on the fact that we can have an amazing month.

Peta Serras [00:36:05]:
And I am the same if we have a not so amazing month, because I know that I do the work every day and that the results sometimes take time. Like, it just takes time to catch up. Right. But I wasn't always like this. I was raised by two people that were like, you have to work hard to make money. And it's really. And a lot of people have that. They have this, like, correlation between output and labor versus money in the bank.

Peta Serras [00:36:32]:
And what I talk a lot to clients is like, if you want to scale, everyone's talking about scale at the moment. But I'm like. I feel we've got two different conversations happening. Because for me, I'm like, scale is. How can we. Like, what would it look like at a very simple level, to double the amount that we're making in hot in with half the output. Right. And what's really curious, when I have this conversation with clients, the stuff that comes up, and they'll be like, oh, but I need to.

Peta Serras [00:36:58]:
I need to work more. I need to do this. I'm like, it's not about that. It's about the value and the transformation that you're selling, not about how much you're. You're physically doing with it. And this was a real change for me, coming from my Pilates background, because I started teaching $10 Pilates classes.

Suz Chadwick [00:37:15]:
What are they now, like, 35 bucks? 45 bucks?

Peta Serras [00:37:18]:
Yeah. And it's so wild. And it's like, that's what I started with. It was a $10 product. And, you know, if you want a consulting session with me, now it's $990. And so it's re. I've had to do a lot of growth to kind of get to that point, from, like, that $10 to the $990 I listened to. It's Amanda Francis's book, and she said something, and it was, people love to pay me.

Peta Serras [00:37:42]:
And I love. I love that. And what I do is anytime I get a sale come through, I look at it, and I'm like, people love to pay me.

Suz Chadwick [00:37:52]:
I'm gonna steal that. Yeah.

Peta Serras [00:37:54]:
And it's just so. It's so fun. And what I tell my clients is, you just need the tiniest bit of evidence to hold on to that something is true. I think people think that they need to have this, like, this thing where it's like every day is going to look the same for a year for it to be true, but it's not the case. And one thing that I love to do for any service provider that is moving into a different category of pricing. And this is normally what happens. I'll get a client, I'm like, you are not charging enough, you're not profitable. They'll work out that they're not and then we have to do something like double their prices.

Peta Serras [00:38:29]:
And for a lot of people that's really scary because they'll be like, I'm going to lose all my clients. And oftentimes it's actually not the truth of what's happening, it's their thought. And we don't want that to take the wheel and sabotage something that could be amazing. So one of the tasks that I get them to do is, is, you know, especially if they've had long term clients and we're having a bit of a price increase, I'm like, go, and I want you to look and see how much they've spent in their lifetime with you. And I had this with a client once where she kept talking about the fact that she was really cheap. And it's so funny that I looked at the prices and I'm like, you're actually not that cheap. Like, I don't know where this is coming from. I think that she was really comparing herself to people in the space.

Peta Serras [00:39:11]:
And we looked at one of her retainer clients and that spent $50,000 with her. And I said to her, I want you to change what you're saying, that you're not cheap, you have $50,000 clients. And what happened from that is she then had this offer that she wanted to pitch which was considerably more expensive than what she was selling. But I think it was like maybe $8,000 or something. But that compared to the 50, they're like, oh, I have $50,000 clients. This is 8, 000. That's super simple. And she just pitched it with just this amazing conviction that the person bought.

Peta Serras [00:39:43]:
So I think like what I love to do and something that's really helped me anytime I'm moving into a new income level is I look in stripe and I look and see how much people have paid me. And I'm like, why am I stressed about this? I've already made that and I've already made that so easy and so effortlessly I didn't even realize that I did it. And I think it's about showing your brain evidence and being really conscious of adding to that evidence bag and not the evidence bag of why this can't work.

Suz Chadwick [00:40:12]:
Yeah, I love that. I think that's so important. And I think that, you know, I always say to clients when we start coaching calls, I'm like, what are the wins? Like, what's, what's great, what's good, what's been happening? And I, it's, I don't just do it for the love of it, although it's great. I'm like, we have to train our brain to look for the positive, because our brain is always gonna say, you didn't earn enough. That's like, you're too cheap. You know, you've not done this like you were supposed to, and then you didn't like, whatever it is, it's always gonna go to the negative of not enough, didn't do enough, didn't earn enough. And I think that the evidence and constantly being the person that's like, today, what were my wins like? I had a great podcast episode. I did this, I did that.

Suz Chadwick [00:40:53]:
It was amazing. Great day, Suz. Give yourself a pat on the back. And looking at stripe, looking at your accounts and saying, I earned 50 grand this month, or I had a client that paid in full 5,000 or 10,000 or whatever. And just really reinforcing that, like you said, I think is so important. But we might do it every now and again. And I think it's about kind of having a more common habit of looking at those sorts of things, like the positive of what we have been able to achieve in our business and what we know we can do again.

Peta Serras [00:41:30]:
Yeah, a hundred percent. I looked at my bank account before and I was like, of course, of course you've done this. You're amazing.

Suz Chadwick [00:41:36]:
I love it.

Peta Serras [00:41:37]:
That's the thing. I have clients and they're like, they say to me all the time, they're like, of course, anytime something good happens, I would say, and it's automatic. I didn't realize. I do it. I'm like, of course. And I, I, I not even conscious that I do this, and now I do it to myself. I'm like, of course. Anytime something great happens.

Peta Serras [00:41:53]:
Of course.

Suz Chadwick [00:41:54]:
I love that we're gonna take those two things away. Of course, when something good happens and people love to pay me. Yeah. Money just comes to me. It's just incredible. I love all of those.

Peta Serras [00:42:09]:
We're going to check our emails and we're going to have a sale after we get off. This.

Suz Chadwick [00:42:16]:
Can feel it. I can feel it. So, so good. Amazing. Well, Peter, let's Wrap it there. Hey lovely. Welcome back to the Brand Builders Lab podcast. I am excited for our next interview in the series which is all about sales and money.

Suz Chadwick [00:43:03]:
This month in March. And today I have got the professional Babe herself, Peter Sarris, who I have known for a couple of years now. She's from Melbourne. Well, she's not from Melbourne, but she lives in Melbourne now. And when I thought about sales, I thought she is somebody that loves to talk about money, loves to talk about sales, and as a business owner consultant, it is something that she helps her clients do as well. So a quick intro is that Peter is the founder of Professional Babe, the creator of Give Good Email, and the host of everyone's favorite business podcast, the business fondle. With 15 years entrepreneurial experience in the bag and all her Virgo wisdom, she's been described as the business oracle and the go to for meaty, practical and bold business advisory. So today we are talking all about making more sales in your business.

Suz Chadwick [00:43:59]:
Peter is amazing with email marketing and one of the things that we're really talking about today is how she has made more sales, connected in a better way and a deeper way with her audience, through paying attention. Through paying attention to what people do, what they need, what they ask, and being somebody that preempts that and then builds in the right automations, the right systems to be able to anticipate their needs. So I am excited to share this episode with you. We have such a great conversation. So listen, without further ado, let's dive in to today's episode. But I love what you've shared. Being proactive, really looking at the positives, being somebody that cares. I think that when we're proactive, it is about caring.

Suz Chadwick [00:44:51]:
It's like I care enough that this person has come to me. Let me start the relationship. Let me start the conversation. Let me go and say hi. I just find it like it's not a wild idea to go and say hello to somebody that has come into your world.

Peta Serras [00:45:09]:
Exactly.

Suz Chadwick [00:45:10]:
Pretty basic. But listen for my audience. We'll have all of your links in the show notes, but where can they find you? What's happening?

Peta Serras [00:45:18]:
So you can find me@professional babe.com when you're there, of course, make sure to join my email list. You'll see up the top of my website something called Hot Business, which is a really comprehensive audit. You can take. It spits out this beautiful report. It's very fun. I also have a podcast called the Business Fondle and of course on Instagram because I'm very fun there? It depends. It depends my mood. But it's very entertaining on stories sometimes, but I say so myself.

Suz Chadwick [00:45:49]:
Of course.

Peta Serras [00:45:50]:
Of course.

Suz Chadwick [00:45:50]:
So, so good. Amazing. Well, thank you so much for coming on. So much wisdom and things for us to take action on and do, which we're all about. And. Yeah, hopefully I'll see you for a wine soon. Somewhere in a fabulous Melbourne bar.

Peta Serras [00:46:06]:
I'm so excited.

Suz Chadwick [00:46:09]:
All right, lovely. We'll speak to you soon.

Peta Serras [00:46:11]:
Thank you.

Suz Chadwick [00:46:12]:
Bye.