Six Figures in Sales #author Kate Toon

Six Figures in Sales: How to win more customers without spending a cent on ads

Boost sales with this comprehensive, friendly guide to low-cost marketing, mastering SEO, social media, email campaigns and copywriting, and see your business grow.

A friendly, go-to guide for low-cost marketing and sales tactics that deliver big wins without spending a cent on social media advertising.

Kate Toon, an award-winning Digital Marketing Coach and Business mentor is here to help you craft your brand story, harness your social connections, and build a tribe of raving, credit card holding fans. Whether you’re a service provider, ecommerce store owner or bricks and mortar business, this practical, engaging guide will help you master upselling, cross-selling, and optimizing your online store.

Providing you with powerful marketing, email and social strategies to turn curious prospects into repeat customers, you’ll discover how to wow with customer service, build lifetime loyalty, and write conversion-boosting copy with SEO as your secret weapon. Packed with budget-friendly, real life, doable, strategies to transform your business, Six Figures in Sales gives you the map to success – all you need is the drive to make it happen.

To connecr with Kate ....
https://www.katetoon.com/writing/books/six-figures-in-sales/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

It's good afternoon, Kate Toon. Welcome back, Kate. Can't believe it. Thank you for having me back. Oh, Kate, you're just a book writer that I love having on. We were just reflecting, it was two years since we last spoke, and uh time flies.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

A lot has happened in that time, uh, and very much nothing at all as well. That's weird.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Yeah, very weird. Summed up perfectly. Okay, congratulations. Your latest book is Six Figures in Sales. Tell us all about the book.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

So it's six figures in sales with a byline of how to win more customers without spending a cent on ads. So the basic premise is I don't like giving money to meta. So over the years, I've done everything I can other than give money and spend money on Facebook ads or Instagram ads. And that's what I'm sharing in the book. So it's tactics for selling with video, with copy, with SEO, social media, emails, you name it, I tell you how to sell it without buying any ads.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

And Kate, I'm I'm that the lived experience of this. When I created Yellow Shelf, I had no idea. I'm not from this world. And I learned, and a lot of people said to me, you just need to buy, spend$50 a day on Facebook ads, and your community will grow. And this, and I that wasn't me. So what I love about this book is it's okay to think differently rather than somebody telling you to do it this way. Um, and you know, if that's aligned to your values, your book is really informative and powerful.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

Yeah, and I think the thing is Facebook ads do work for some people. I do think that they have deliberately made the platform obtuse and difficult to use, which means you therefore sometimes need someone to help you do it. So you're paying for ads and paying for someone to maintain your ads, or you're relying on their AI programs to serve the ads, then you kind of don't have any control at all. So every tactic I recommend in my book would work if you were doing Facebook ads as well. It would probably just reduce the cost of those Facebook ads. So if you still want to read my book and do Facebook ads, that's okay as well. No judgment.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

And that's true, no judgment because some people have the budget, but some people in sales, you know, want to keep it bootstrapped, want to keep the margins low, you know, like really want to do it their way.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

So you but also, yeah, I think also as well, Facebook ads don't work for some vertical, so they work very well for e-commerce. If you've got simple products to sell, but if you're selling like a coaching program or trying to promote something more ethereal, like a podcast, do you know it doesn't translate as well. So you know, you can't if you're a lawyer and whoop whoop, using Facebook ads might not be the way to go, you know.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Yeah, and Kate, we don't know this. Do you know, like we, and I'm talking about me, normal people, normal people. We we don't know this if we're not, you know, degree qualified, and you know, um, yeah, it's and it's that's why the book's so informative. Kate, do you want to tell us why you wrote this one? You've got a series of books, which feel free to mention because you and I have spoken before. Uh, we interviewed a couple of years ago. Talk us about why you, you know, wrote this one for sales and a bit about the other ones.

SPEAKER_00 3:22

Yeah, so I I've written three now. This is a trilogy, and it was always hoped to be that. Um, so the first one was six figures in school hours, which was about managing the juggle of being a parent and having your own business, which is, you know, hugely problematic, as many of us know. The second one was six figures in your sleep while you sleep, which was about turning your skills and services into passive income, which is kind of what I did. And then this last one is about selling. And really, it takes me back to my origin because my background is advertising agencies. I started in the world of Ogil V. I was a copywriter, a producer working with big brands. And then, you know, when I started my own business, I was very lucky because most small business owners, authors, whoever they are, they're good at what they do. They're good at writing, they're good at being a carpenter, they're good at being a doctor, but they're not good at the other stuff: marketing, selling, budgeting, pitching. And unfortunately, if you have your own business, 50% at least of your time is going to be spent doing all that stuff you're not good at. And I was lucky that I had that skill set, which has enabled me to kind of build my business without ads.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

Yeah. And Kate, you're a very generous sharer. Um, and I think that's, you know, obviously part of your brand. Can I just say you have a cracking, amazing, awesome website?

SPEAKER_00 4:40

Ah, thanks very much. Um, I try, I really try, and I try to give a lot of way. One of my core values is generosity. It bites me on the bottom a lot, but especially with business books. I mean, you obviously interview lots of real authors who write novels. But with a lot of business, a lot of business books, they're really just glorified lead magnets or sales tools, and then very thin. And the idea is that you read them and then you'll go and buy their 20 grand program, which I find odious, you know, or they're like too little butter scraped over too much bread. They should have just been a blog post. There's not enough in them. So I really wanted my book to be a course in a book, a handbook. Like I want there's nothing that gives me more pleasure when I see someone come in my shop, and the book is covered in post-it notes and highlights, and the pages are bent, and that means someone's used this as a tool, and that's what I want it to be.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

Yes, it's like their you know, daily Bible in the workplace. Yeah, Kate, I I was laughing with you off camera. You know, not a week goes by where somebody doesn't say to me, Oh, Kate Toon at bookstore, have you do you know her? Do you know? Honestly, people ask me all the time. Um, you have a you have a bookstore. So you are like you're a real business person.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

I know. So yeah, I bought the bookshop a couple of years ago. Um, it was to sell my own books, and actually buying your own bookshop is cheaper than uh paying for Facebook ads. Uh, so it is great. I've got my own shelf where I sell all my books and my kids' books. Pretty cool. Um but it does give you an absolute insight into the world of publishing and books and how how they how they've come into the shop, which ones work, which ones don't, the impact of the bookseller. It's fascinating and not something I knew anything about. Uh, but yeah, I I've worked hard on building community around the shop, and it appears to be paying off.

SPEAKER_01 6:33

It does because the community they talk and there's a lot of talking going on. So, Kate, where to from here? You get to enjoy this book, it's out now. I'll put some links in the show notes. Do you want to point us in the direction if we're watching anywhere in the world or listening? Uh, we were chatting, the book's coming out in the northern hemisphere as well. So tell us about that.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

So uh my publisher has been uh conglomerated with a larger publisher, Rockpool, which is fantastic. And they have decided to release my books in the US and the UK, which obviously is very exciting because I'm originally British. So um that'll be September. But other than that, I'm good at SEO, you see. So when I chose the titles of my books, I made it very carefully sure that there were no other books called the same thing. So if you Google my books, you'll find them, or if you Google Kate Tune, you'll find them on a myriad of platforms they are available on. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

Well, Kate, I'm gonna put some links in the show notes to make it easier, but I also want people to go and have a look at your website. I'm so impressed. Oh, just I need to like, yeah, it's just I love I love the timeline, like it's it's a good one.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

It's thank you very much. I mean, that's my real real job. Yeah, yeah. No, it's good.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

I I see a lot, and some are memorable and some aren't. Yeah, yeah. Kate, uh, where to in the future? Like, do I get you back in on yellow shelf in the future? Are you gonna write more? What's oh gosh, no?

SPEAKER_00 8:02

You'll be my first call. I'm I really um simplifying my life so that I can write my novel. My life's too busy at the moment. Yeah, I've even sit in the morning and have half an hour. But all I've ever wanted to do, ever, is write a novel. And all this stuff up till now has been procrastination. Uh, so my goal for the next few years is to try and write my my novel. I've got a couple of ideas that I'm thinking of. I'm not going to talk about them. Uh, but yeah, just sit down and do the work and and write my book and see if I can get it published.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

Awesome. Well, Kate, um, I won't stalk you for the next few years. Please do. But let's let's stay connected. Yes. Um, because I feel like I would love to have you back. I'll be here waiting, ready to be your cheerleader.

SPEAKER_00 8:47

And you need someone visit you, Mina, New South Wales, come and see my little shop.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

Oh, Kate, you know I'm only up the road. I mean you did not know that. And Kate, I'm gonna be honest, I actually went to your bookstore one day and you weren't there. I'm not there. All the time. Of course you're not. I don't live there. I know, and your staff are wonderful. And I well, you need to send me a little message.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

I only live down the road, so I'll just cycle down.

SPEAKER_01 9:12

I I wanted it to be, I wanted to be a surprise.

SPEAKER_00 9:15

It's a coming back. I'll keep coming back. Warn me, warn me though, because I'm I I'm not one of these people who like surprises, they make me cry and get upset. So um just send me a text and we can have coffee and talk.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Okay, I know we will get to meet face to face, but if we don't, we'll just keep doing these chats as you release books. I I think we should do a live episode of Yellow Shelf in the bookshop, Kate.

SPEAKER_00 9:37

Oh my god, I've not done one yet. Let's do it. Let's do it. If you go down the road, we'll get we'll get a couple of your favorite authors and we'll do a live episode.

SPEAKER_01 9:46

Let's do it. Yay! Kate, all the best with the book, particularly the launch in the northern hemisphere, and enjoy. I love talking to you all the best. Thank you. Cheers.