What do you want your listener to do when the episode is over? That is your call to action.

Your goal may be to sell your product or service, get listeners to sign up for your webinar or simply grow your audience. Maybe you want your listener to support your cause, or visit your guests website.

Before you begin to record your episode, you need to decide the outcome. What will your listener do when the episode is over?

Begin with the end in mind.

SELLING

Some podcasters will tell me they are selling anything. They don't believe they are selling, because they aren't directing people to a sales opportunity like a sales page or coaching session.

If you are trying to get your listener to take action, you are selling.

When I was little, my brother and I would go to the grocery store with my mom. As gradeschoolers, you can imagine how bored we would get walking up and down the aisles.

It didn't take long before Keith and I would tell mom we were going to find the toys while she shopped for flour and cans of corn.

Grocery stores never had many toys. But, we would always find something we liked and wanted.

We would return to mom and sell her on the idea why buying us the Silly Putty made total sense. Keith and I would offer to clean our room, or not ask for anything else for the next month. We were always making a deal.

Sometimes it work. Other times it didn't. Either way, we were selling.

If you are trying to get someone to take action, you are selling.

SELLING IS EASY

Joe Polish, founder of the Genius Network, once said great marketing makes selling easy and unnecessary.

I completely agree.

Selling is comprised of four steps.

Step one of selling is building rapport with your prospect. You need to create some sort of relationship so the buyer believes you have their best interest at heart. This step represents roughly 40% of the selling process.

Once you've build a bit of a relationship, step two is qualifying your prospect. During this step, you make sure you are right for your prospect and your prospect is right for you.

As you are qualifying your prospect, you are making sure you can solve your prospect's problem. This step is roughly 30% of the process.

Many people rush these first two steps. This is the foundation of all selling. Spend 70% of your time ensuring these two steps are done properly. When you do, selling will be easy.

Step three is educating your prospect on your solution. This is where too many people begin. They jump right in telling people how their course or coaching or solution is the best.

This step doesn't work, because they haven't spent enough time on steps one and two. They haven't build the foundation. This step should only represent about 20% of the selling process.

That leaves step four, which is closing the sale. If you've done the process correctly, this short step should simply involve asking the prospect if they would like to move forward. This is only 10% of the selling process.

I HATE SELLING

Many people hate selling, because they rush to steps three and four. They've build no rapport and they haven't qualified their prospect.

Do you like making friends? Of course, you do. We all like it when people like us.

That's step one. Just make friends. Talk about their goals and dreams.

Coaches tell me they want to grow their audience, so they can attract their ideal clients to their business. Maybe they want to leave their 9-to-5 and build a business of their own.

As we talk, they dream. Spend plenty of time building rapport with your prospect. Slow down.

During this step, you'll discover what they value. You will see where their priorities lie. They will also tell you what they are trying to accomplish and where they are struggling.

Let them talk. Don't sell. Just build rapport.

QUALIFY

Once you have a solid understanding of their situation, begin discussing her struggles, challenges and problems. What has she tried that has worked and what hasn't worked.

By discussing her goals and challenges, you'll begin to qualify her as a potential client. You will know if your solution is the answer to her problem.

Ask a lot of questions. Ask, "Have you tried this?" "Have you considered that?" The more questions you ask, the clearer it will be whether or not your solution is right for her situation.

Let's look at the coach that has come to me to grow their audience and use their podcast to drive their business. I'll ask what she has tried to grow the audience. Does she have a system and strategy? We'll talk about what she enjoys and what frustrates her.

During this phase, I am trying to create a solution in my head that fits activities she really enjoys and also fits a program I offer.

The questions I ask usually relate to my solution. I may ask, "Have you used podcast interviews to get in front of your prospective ideal clients who are not yet aware of you?" "Have you used JV partners to help you grow?"

These are parts of my Podcast Profits Coaching Program. I want to know if she has tried it, if it has worked and if she enjoys interviewing.

At this point, you've gone through 70% of the selling process and you haven't done any selling. However, she is beginning to see a solution form in her mind.

THE SOLUTION

Once I've built rapport and qualified my prospect, we like each other and I know my solution is perfect for her.

If my solution isn't perfect, I'll give her some recommendations and we'll go our separate ways. I don't want people to buy solutions that don't make sense.

However, my solution is usually a good fit if we have reached this point in the conversation. She has gone through many filters to get here.

When I have the perfect solution, I will say, "I have a program that is designed specifically to help coaches grow their audience and attract their ideal clients. Would you like to hear a bit about it?"

She will say yes, because she wants to be polite. I will then describe how my Podcast Profits Coaching Program solves her problems and helps her reach her goals.

I know this program will work for her, because I've spent plenty of time in steps one and two. She also knows it will work, because she envisioned it during steps one and two. She helped me build the solution by the conversations we had.

CLOSING

The final step is asking for the sale. I simply say, "Is that something you would like to implement for your business?"

That's it. We've already built the relationship, ensured the solution is right for her and explained exactly how my Podcast Profits Coaching Program solves her problems and helps her reach her goals.

All that is left is answering a few questions and completing the sign up form.

YOUR CALL TO ACTION

Now, you may not be selling in the traditional sense of products or services in exchange for money. However, you are making a call to action within your podcast.

Your call to action might be selling for money. It may also be inviting your listener to come again, asking him to visit your website, requesting that she join your mailing list, inspiring him to get involved with a cause or any other action.

All of it involves selling.

Joe Polish said great marketing gets people properly positioned, so they are pre-interested, pre-motivated, pre-qualified, and predisposed to do business with you (or act on your call to action). Great marketing therefore makes selling easy and unnecessarily.

This call to action is what your podcast is all about. You can build rapport with your content and end with a strong call to action. Get your listeners to pre-qualify themselves through the information you share.

If your content gets them interested, motivated and qualified, your call to action will be much more effective. Send them somewhere to help solve their problems.

If you have truly engaged your listener and created that strong relationship we've been discussing, your call to action should take care of itself. Selling becomes difficult when you are trying to get your listener interested.

Selling before your listener is motivated is a challenge. Trying to sell to a listener that isn't qualified is hard work. If your listener isn't predisposed to taking action, you will need to sell hard.

You need to do all of these with your content.

Steps one and two can be done on your podcast before you ever get on a call with your listener. You can build rapport and qualify your audience through your stories and content you share on your episodes. Then, offer your call to action.

Building relationships with your podcast involves telling great stories. Revealing things about yourself through stories makes you real. Your listeners get to know and like you. As you continue to help them over time, you build trust.

When you have taken the time to build the relationship, your listener will be pre-interested, pre-motivated, pre-qualified, and predisposed to do business with you. They will be ready to take action.

Selling, in terms of convincing your listener to buy, will be unnecessary. Your marketing and engaging relationship will have them ready for your call to action.

Do the hard work up front to make selling easy.

SERVE BEFORE ASK

To help you buid that rapport, serve first. Serve many times over. Then and only then will your call to action be effective.

Shows like the "and-events.shows.the-ramsey-show">Dave Ramsey Show", "48 Days To The Work You Love" and "Smart Passive Income" are all designed to help their listeners first.

Sure, these shows all have products to sell as the end result. However, they never begin with their product. The discussions on these shows always begin with the listener's needs in mind first.

As you prepare for your show, determine what you want your listener to do when the show is over. Then, find great ways to help.

Your help also builds trust. Your call to action should also lead them to additional help to get out of pain and solve their problems.

ASK FOR THE ACTION

After you've done the hard work building the relationship, don't forget to ask for the sale.

I stopped by the quickie mart one afternoon to get something to drink. As I waited in line at the cash register, the gentlemen in front of me set his purchase on the counter.

Among his items was a 2-liter bottle of soda. The bottle of soda was $1.69. The clerk said, "Did you know these are on sale two for $2? You can grab another and save yourself some money."

The customers responds with, "Looks like I need to grab another bottle."

By simply asking for the sale, the clerk doubled the purchase. The customer also benefitted by saving some money.

In fact, everyone wins in this transaction. The store is paying the clerk an hourly wage whether he sells one bottle of soda or 100.

The cost of the clerk's time to the store remains constant. Wages are the biggest expense to the store when figuring cost of goods sold. Therefore, by adding another bottle of soda to the purchase, even at the lower price, the store makes more money also.

It all happened because the clerk asked for the sale.

This week, review your show to ensure you are building those relationships.

• Start with the listener instead of your product or service

• Determine how you are going to help your listener with this episode

• Put a strong call to action at the end of the episode

HERE'S MY CALL TO ACTION

I would love to help you with your podcast. If you would like to improve your content, create an effective call to action and grow your business, I have a few openings for coaching clients.

There are three things that need to be present for you to ensure this is right for you. This is where you qualify yourself.

You need to be serious about making some money with your podcast. If you want to attract your ideal clients and grow your business, this is for you.

Next you need to be willing to do a little work to implement the process. We will work together to build a customized plan for you, your show and your business.

This will be a system you can rinse and repeat. But, it will take a little time and effort. If you have an hour a day to invest if building your business, this is for you.

Finally, you need to be willing to have conversations and make friends like we discussed in steps one and two. We will use your podcast to generate more conversations with prospective clients. Then, we'll build your process to turn those listeners into clients. If you're willing to make friends, this is your program.

But, we have to date before we can get serious, right?

I'm offering a complimentary coaching call to a few candidates who are serious about their improvement. We need to see if we are a good fit for each other.

There will be no high pressure sales pitch. We will have a conversation about your goals and challenges. We'll develop a plan that fits your style.

If it clicks, we can discuss the Podcast Profits Coaching Program. If the call is not all you had hoped, no harm. We'll just continue on as friends. As I described earlier, it needs to be perfect for both of us.

There is only room for a few. My calendar simply will not allow me to coach everyone.

If you are interested … and serious … e-mail me at Coach (at) PodcastTalentCoach.com. Tell me you would like to have a conversation about building your strategy. We can get the conversation started.

I look forward to our conversation. Let's get started on your system and create an effective call to action.