Setting Expectations for Your Engagement on Social Media Based Upon Your Business
Allow us to introduce you to sales guru and strategy master Emily Gorrie, founder of EMVP Consulting. She is a rising sales consultant that has dedicated the last 8 months to applying her extensive background in corporate sales to helping small business owners perfect their sales strategy, funnels, product launches and scaling. Emily has an extensive background in sales where she helped multimillion-dollar businesses launch successful products and endeavors. She created EMVP consulting to be able to help small business owners launch their dreams successfully and scale their business! She is passionate about her personal connection to each client and works closely, taking many meetings or phone calls to ensure her services are changing the lives of her clients. She is more than just an sales consultant. For her it’s all about the interactive, face-to-face planning sessions and phone consultations. She provides customized strategies and consultations tailored specifically to each client, versus a one size fits all approach like some online business coaches.
“If you cannot get somebody to exchange money for your service or your product, then you’re not in business and we can always do it a little bit better.” – Emily
Emily’s approach to social media marketing for her own business was very unique and refreshing, in the sense that she stresses using social media as a tool and source for knowledge instead of a direct lead generation source. We talked sales strategies, favorite books and really focused on coming to terms with all things involved in running a small business. As we talked, it was great to see how Emily understands why some businesses especially your non-ecommerce businesses will see less engagement on social media, why that’s OKAY, and why you still NEED to have a social presence. Emily mentions coming to terms with what she calls “level setting” or setting expectations both for yourself and your own business in your social media strategy. Check out a little on what she has to say about how social media is working for her and how it’s affected how she approaches growth strategies with her own clients.
MECYO: HOW DID YOU START EMVP CONSULTING?
Emily: I have been drawn to sales ever since starting my career. I was helping advertising companies and big corporations make millions but was losing momentum and losing steam. I kept asking myself what was my WHY. I loved sales and all that intertwined with it but I wanted to help small business owners impact the bottom line and make—maybe not a few million more--but maybe a few thousand more a year to help them grow and support their families. That’s what I wanted to be able to do. So, I started up EMVP Consulting and have felt so fulfilled and excited to help my clients achieve their dreams. My business is all about gathering information and assessing processes to tweak and yield better results.
MEYCO: HOW DO YOU USE SOCIAL MEDIA TO ENHANCE YOUR BUSINESS? AND WHAT DOES YOUR STRATEGY LOOK LIKE?
Emily: I’ve only been in business 8 months now, and it’s been awesome. But I’ll be honest with you, the honeymoon phase is starting to become less honeymoon and reality is setting in. Now I’m working on my own growth. I’ve started to use social media differently than when I first began. I initially felt that social media was out of my realm, that I didn’t know what I was doing, but by emulating other businesses that inspired me I’d figure it out. Which is actually how I learned how to sell in the first place. I would replicate what my colleagues or bosses were doing and then put my own spin on it. Which is I think, the best way to learn. I started using it social media as an emulation, assuming that the people and businesses I was emulating were getting clients that channel. However, I soon realized that social media was not going to be a lead generation source for me. We’re not an online based service. What I do is very personal and that lends itself to in-person brainstorming and meetings. So, I started to look at my social media strategy as a way for potential clients to, say ‘hey, I heard about you through word of mouth, but I saw a tip you put out online, I want to know more.’ Social media has become a validation tool more than anything, and I’ve become more comfortable with there not being as much interaction on my social profiles as I had hoped. Because, for me, that’s not what social media is used for. I don’t stress out if my post isn’t posting on time or if people aren’t engaging. I’m glad we’ve moved past the emulation stage because it was stressful! It was too much pressure!
MEYCO: ARE THERE ANY TIPS YOU HAVE TO BEING ABLE TO COME TO TERMS WITH SEEING LESS ENGAGEMENT ONLINE?
Emily: I realized quickly that I’m not going to see a whole lot of engagement coming through my website or social media because I don’t have an online product for people to buy. I don’t even have an ecommerce section set up on my website! Most of the work I do with my clients is behind the scenes and happens “offline”, so my strategy is all about sharing the knowledge of this behind the scenes prep. It’s about being that source of information or relating to my ideal client that stirs them to want to have a conversation with me. I aim for my content to resonate. It’s all about understanding how social media promotions and marketing is going to fit your business model. Once you figure that out, you can look past the numbers of comments or likes on your posts and focus on the content to grab their attention.
MEYCO: DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE TO SMALL BUSINESS AND ENTREPRENEURS ON SETTING THEIR OWN EXPECTATIONS FOR THEIR SOCIAL STRATEGY AND GOALS?
Emily: In terms of setting expectations, you first off need to make sure your expectations are realistic. I would say, it comes around to understanding what you are looking to achieve. If it’s, “I need to make $100k in the next 6 months because I need to pay off my car loans” or “I want to get 10k more followers in the next month on Instagram”, then I would say that’s a pretty unrealistic expectation. It’s all about level setting and being okay with what you are you doing currently to meet your, but focusing on one small thing you can do each day to move your business forward. My initial reaction to when clients set these types of goals is not, “oh dear that’s ridiculous”. These goals came from somewhere, so we make sure to dive deeper. “Why do you need to do that, why do you want to do that, and what are you currently doing to support that goal? We sit down and evaluate their current set up to see what they are yielding at this time. We break it down together and take the time to understand what is motivating them or pushing them to set these expectations and help us set up a plan. Often times something needs to change; we need to price up your product, we need to bring on more people to help you take on more clients, etc. So, I find power and comfort in level setting with real numbers. Scaling basically is doing what you’re currently doing on a larger level and figuring out how to implement that. It’s doable, but when someone is confronted with reality, they tend to understand and realize that they need to set an achievable goal by breaking it down into realistic accomplishments. The same can be said for social media.
The Skim:
Setting expectations and taking the time to strategize a behind the scenes system to fit your social growth goals all starts with a plan. We loved getting to talk to Emily and see how she has not only realized how she needs to use social media differently for her to scale her business but also how creating a plan to set expectations can help you tackle your to-dos in no time! Having the strength to have small growth every day is what will make the biggest difference in the long run and we love how much Emily focuses on that! We HIGHLY encourage you to check her out if you’re looking to scale, introduce a new product, hire a sales person or simply want to hone your sales skills! Her planning skills and expectation powers will come in handy!
“A big thing to remember is that as long as you’re doing something to move the business forward every day, and it can be one thing, and that’s okay, but as long as you do one thing, you should be proud so don’t stress yourself out!” – Emily
