What happens when you spend two days in a live event held by someone who sells more than a million dollars in sales every time they run it? 

Well, if you’re me, you break out a fresh, blank Google sheet and you make the mother of all spreadsheets. Then you take notes in it like your life depends on it … because your business just might. 

Look, I’m no dummy. Even though the event was virtual and all interaction took place through a screen, I wasn’t going to waste the opportunity to nerd out over an expert’s sales process – especially since I’m determined to learn everything I can to help me improve the way I offer my programs. Why trial and error things when you can learn from someone who’s figured it out?

I came out of the virtual event with an entire framework for a two day event. Instead of just keeping my brain dump to myself, I thought I’d share my top seven sales takeaways, so you can learn how to apply them to your business too. 

About the Expert

So whose live event did I attend, and why? I attended Krista Mashore’s Two-Day Digital Domination Bootcamp. Krista Mashore is a real estate agent who sells homes and trains other real estate agents how to leverage social media marketing to land more listings and sales

Ummm, wait a minute Christa. You’re not a real estate agent, and you don’t train real estate agents.

You are 100% right about that. I’m not … but I AM a copywriting coach who trains copywriters. We don’t teach the same content, but we do have a similar business model, which means there’s a lot I can learn from her sales model. 

That’s what I went into the event looking for – a breakdown of her sales model. I wanted to know how she engineered her event to create trust, give value, generate desire, show herself as the expert, and make an irresistible offer.

And man, was it irresistible. But before we dive in and discuss my top seven takeaways and how I plan to implement her sales strategies in my next launches, let’s talk about something really important – how to choose the right experts to follow. 

Who Should You Learn From? 

If you offer products, services, or programs like I do, I highly recommend finding people who are action-takers and learning from them. I’m not just talking about high-ticket coaching either. There are lots of ways to learn from someone. Here are just a few:

• Watch their video content
• Sign up for their live or virtual events
• Attend their webinars
• Take in their master classes
• Follow them on social media
• Listen to their podcasts
• Read their blogs

One of the first things I noticed about Krista Mashore is that she invests heavily into coaching and mentoring for herself. She often mentioned her coaches and things she’d learned from them as she grew her business. She’s not a lone ranger. She found someone who was out there doing what she wanted to do and learned from them.

You can learn so much about sales from an expert just by watching how they relate to their audiences. But how do you know who to follow? How do you know who is a good-fit expert for you to watch? I look for three things:

Look for someone who’s doing it WELL. Find somebody who is successfully selling products and services on the back end – and I don’t just mean they’re posting photos of lambos and swimming pools. I mean look for the people who have active online communities and their heads down doing the thing. They’re not just talking the talk, they’re walking the walk. 

In addition to selling homes, Mashore is active in her communities and she hosts challenges and two-day Live events every month. That’s a LOT of time and energy commitment, and it’s paying off for her – and for the people she serves.

Look for someone with INTEGRITY.  In addition to finding someone who’s successfully getting sales, look for somebody who is delivering what they promise. Are the clients and customers getting what they’re promised? Do they have a lot of positive testimonials and real-life client results? 

Mashore has tons of positive reviews from her programs, and she delivers as promised. That checked my box for someone 

Look for someone you can RELATE to. There is more than one way to sell. You don’t want to lock yourself into attempting a sales structure that completely goes against the grain. For example, I could never get into hard sales. It’s just not me. I tend to be more conversational and story-based. I like to invite people into my world to become part of what I do and who I am every single day. 

Mashore is a mom like me, someone who built a business from nothing out of necessity. She’s fun and engaging in her videos, so I was really interested to watch how she sold to her audience.

Set the Stage

My first takeaway from Mashore’s event was how important it is to set the stage before the event. A successful event starts way before the first attendee joins the Zoom, and Mashore did a great job nurturing excitement and commitment before the event even started by contacting those who signed up via email and text message.

From the time I opted into the event to the time the event started, I received more than a dozen emails hyping the event and providing necessary information about the event.  I actually created a Google doc where I copied and pasted all of the emails so I can study them. 

Some of the emails were seeding the ideas and the concepts I was going to learn during the event. Others had the links for the Zoom room, the workbook, and the Facebook group. None of the emails were super long, but they all offered some helpful information that would keep the event top of mind. There were also several reminder emails the day of the event. 

I was really glad to get the whole look at her email structure. For me, this part of an event is a little bit uncomfortable. I have the kind of personality where I don’t like to bother people, and I don’t like to be perceived as somebody who’s always being pesky trying to sell. 

It was really good for me to see how committed she was to being very consistent in sending out a good number of emails to offer value beforehand. It really does keep things top of mind, and as an attendee, I wasn’t the slightest bit bothered. I had willingly signed up for the event, and I was ready for whatever email she sent. 

She also included a couple emails that had links to videos. There was one that had a testimonial from somebody who had attended the event and another one that talked about one of the frameworks she was going to teach. I thought this was a fun twist on a plain text email, and it’s definitely something I’m going to try. 

Another thing that Mashore did well before the event started was that she had a really active Facebook group just for event attendees. Her moderators were there posting and answering questions. There were also fun prompts and posts that encouraged attendees to introduce themselves and get to know each other so they could start becoming a community. 

Lead With Mindset

The second takeaway I want to share about the 2-day event is to lead with mindset. One of the first things Mashore did was break down the fears and questions and pain points of the audience. She came alongside them and was like, “Hey, I know that it’s been tough. 2020 really rocked the real estate industry, and you’re trying to keep things going. I know, because my agency had its challenges too.” 

Mashore clearly called out exactly how the attendees were feeling, then set the stage for the idea that they can lay down what they assume it’s possible and accept the idea that even more is possible. She went back over those themes over and over again, and I was there for it. 

So much of sales is getting people to let go of and leave behind their old false beliefs so they can take a chance on something else. These real estate agents have tried other ways to market their services. They’re not where they want to be due to lack of trying. 

The fact that people showed up live for the event on Zoom indicated they’re ready to learn something new. Giving them permission to let go of what they’ve tried that didn’t work right off the bat is super important. If you don’t do that, they’re going to drag all their luggage and all their baggage with them through all of the actual teaching training part, and it’s going to pull their focus. 

Mashore wasn’t afraid to get vulnerable to connect. It’s easy to look at successful people and think it’s all been smooth sailing for them. At the beginning of the sessions, Mashore openly shared her story with attendees, and it wasn’t a story of privilege and ease. Over and over she encouraged us, telling us that success was possible for everyone. 

She also made sure everyone knew that she’s had to overcome challenges and obstacles along the way. About four years ago, Mashore decided to share the key to her success as a real estate agent by showing them how to use social media to grow their followings, so that they could land more listings and sales. It’s a very effective program, but that doesn’t mean it was an overnight success. It took Mashore four years to figure out how to market her program in a way that really shows the value of the program and leads to consistent 7-figure sales.

Try Things Until You Find A Winner

My third take away from the event is the way Mashore just kept trying sales strategies until she found what worked for her. This $97 two-day event is her winner. During the event, she teaches attendees some basic frameworks and pitches her program – a yearlong mastermind with access to her and her whole team. 

The 2-day Live event not only gives unprecedented access to Krista for an extended period of time, it also lets attendees “try on” her coaching methods. By providing tons of value over a short period of time, she’s proving herself and the results she helps clients get while building trust and authority.

By the time the event is over, the attendees are blown away and hate to leave. She has proven that the logical next step is for them to join her mastermind, and many of them do to the tune of almost $23,000 a year. She’s consistently producing sales of over one million every month with this model, and I’m all ears. 

My program is nowhere near $23,000, but I’m super intently watching how she sells  because I know that her program gets her ideal clients results, and that’s what I’m after too. I’m after helping copywriters be able to step it up at a high level so that they can attract the high paying clients and customers that they deserve. 

Have A Support Team

The fourth thing I was blown away by with Krista Mashore’s event was the level of team and sales support staff she had. In addition to the Facebook group moderators, who were great, she had

• An emcee for the live event who kept the crowd pumped up and moved things along.
• Tech support for those tricky glitches, and there were some. Mashore was in her new studio, and this was the first event using it. There were definitely tech glitches, but she handed it with grace and had tech support nearby to help. 
• Moderators in the chat during the event answered questions and interacted with attendees, and sales support stood by to take calls.

I’m pretty independent, and I don’t like asking for help. But when you have 400 people in a Zoom room for two entire days, there’s no way you can make it trying to be the lone ranger. I learned from my first challenge that I needed extra team support during challenge week, so I’m glad to see that standard adhered to here. 

This extra support is vital for virtual events in another way as well. Obviously, real live events aren’t really a thing that people are doing right now. At virtual events, you have to work a little bit harder to help people feel connected, and I really liked the way the Mashore’s team did that. When screens separate you from your audience, extra team engagement in the chat, Facebook group, and email helps attendees feel like they’re there, expecially during a sales pitch. 

Testimonials Are Everything

My fifth takeaway re-emphasized something I’ve been aware of as a copywriter for a long time. There’s nothing more powerful than the testimonial of someone just like you. Krista Mashore recognizes this and uses testimonials frequently in her 2-day events. She has written testimonials. She has video testimonials. She even has clients and students come on live and share their stories of how working with her and going through her program has impacted and changed their lives. 

We all need to make capturing client and student testimonials a priority. Let me take some pressure off – it doesn’t have to be fancy! A simple “This is where I was before I started and this is where I am today” is enough. 

Mashore’s program’s testimonials followed a similar format, and it really works. It’s relatable, and everyone at the event could connect with it because they’re living in the “before” right now. If they can see somebody who’s just like them who has achieved the result that they really, really want, then they start to think that it’s possible for them too.

I find it hard to ask for testimonials, so this is one I definitely need to work on. It helps to remind myself that my program can change lives. By not making sure I have plenty of testimonials and reviews, I’m shortchanging my audience on the results they can expect from joining my program.

Ask For Micro Commitments

My sixth takeaway is how important it is to engage the viewer and get them nodding along virtually in the comments, something that’s referred to as a micro commitment. Asking little micro commitment questions along the way helps keep the audience alert and active. Some examples include:

• Drop in the chat how many deals do you have lined up right now?
• Are you happy with that number?
• Take a screenshot of the slide right now
• Jump up and get your blood pumping

She was big on participation in other ways too. Each day everyone repeated their mantra together out loud over Zoom. She also promoted engagement in the Facebook group and had little action tasks for the attendees. That got attendees moving and interacting with other people and started creating that sense of community and accountability. 

Pitch Earlier

The final takeaway has to do with that drum roll moment an entire launch is built on – the actual pitch. Mashore went back and forth between teaching and training, she talked about the ins and outs of creating video, the psychology of sales, the four levels of giving value to their clients, and how to determine your client avatar in your niche.

Know what else she talked about? Her offer. Along the way, she seeded the idea that there was even more awesomeness available. She was open about the fact that she has a program with much more inside. She didn’t try to keep the pitch a secret.

Did that annoy or turn people off? I watched the attendance numbers to find out, and there were consistently around 400 people on live. Instead of people leaving when she talked about her program, the exact opposite happened. People started begging for the price, and they started begging for it early – on day one before noon! This blew my mind because they still had a full day and a half of content and learning that they were going to be given.  

Another thing that I found really interesting was that she did her big sales pitch at noon on day two instead of waiting until the very end. I really liked this because it meant the audience wasn’t already starting to zone out knowing the end was near. They stayed because it was earlier in the day and they wanted the content she had for them that afternoon. 

The Backstory with Krista

I was very fortunate to be able to meet with Krista Mashore in a small group Zoom chat for a couple hours just days after the live event. We were able to ask all kinds of questions. It was really cool to get the behind-the-scenes look and hear her ideas about what she would do differently than next time, or the tweaks and changes she made early on that made a huge difference in conversions later on.

She was also quick to remind us that just three or four years ago, she had no following or social proof. She started from the bottom up, just like I did, and if she could do it, we could too.

That was a great reminder for me. I can be pretty hard on myself and often think I should be further along than I am. I think I should be doing more, accomplishing or achieving more, and I get really frustrated with myself because I think “Alright, you’ve been in this thing for several years now. You should really be doing more, you should be doing better. Your stuff should be performing better.”

I know what I would say to a client in my shoes. I’d say, “Growth takes time. You’re on the right track.” It’s so easy to be a cheerleader for others, then not take it to heart for yourself. I’m grateful to Krista Mashore for that reminder.

More from Christa Nichols

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