Today we're talking sales. Specifically, how to make sales easy.. because I promise, it does NOT have to be so damn hard.
Here's what I dive into:
Connect:
Today we're talking sales. Specifically, how to make sales easy.. because I promise, it does NOT have to be so damn hard.
Here's what I dive into:
Connect:
#POV | Sales does not have to be so hard
Hey, yo. Welcome. Welcome back to the podcast. I wanna talk about sales today. Gosh, I know I talked about sales calls recently, but I wanna talk more broadly about sales, the importance of sales. I think people overcomplicate sales. I don't even, I, I don't know. Like there's a lot of information out there about how to sell, how to sell effectively, how to sell without sleeves.
Like all of this stuff, like we know sales is important, we have to sell in order to. Actually have a business if we're not selling. Like what are we doing? Right? So let's talk about it. First of all, I want to push back on this, this like concept of sales as being something that is like, Separate and different.
I, I dunno, I think it get gets built up into being this like really big intimidating action or like, bucket of actions and people are like, oh, I can't sell, or, you know, sales is intimidating. Like, I just feel, I, I hear all of these different phrases all the time that, that really paint this picture of sales being something that is scary and unique and in my opinion.
Sales is actually quite simple. I, I don't think a lot about when I'm selling, when I'm not selling, I don't like build up to, you know, having a sales conversation. I, I don't overthink it. And I think that that's like critically important. And one thing that is, if you can figure out how to do that and you can crack that code on your perspective on sales, it makes things so much easier.
So one frame that I like to use on sales is that it's just inviting people. to work with you, and it's describing to people what you do. Like, I, I just like to think about it in terms like that, not, oh, I'm selling someone. or, because I think that, It, it, it makes it feel like you are trying to convince them to do something that they don't wanna do.
And that's not what you're doing when you're, when you're selling, you are just simply describing what you do, how you do it, why it's important, how it helps people. All like very easy, approachable things, especially if you are. Confident in your offer. If you understand your offer, if you know that your offer helps people, if you ha if, if you have those types of feelings towards what you actually do, the the value that you provide, then selling shouldn't be a barrier.
You should simply just be describing to people. , what you do, how you do it, why it's important, how I can help them, and that's it. That is a sales conversation. I think this other frame of it being an invitation is really important too, because what I see happening, oh my gosh, this is just as like mind boggling to me.
I will find someone online and I will be like, oh wow. They are. They are like doing something that I need, like I need their help. This is like the solution I've been looking for, and I'll reach out to them and they will never. Sell me. They'll, they'll, and when I say sell, I mean they will never invite me to work with them.
And they are doing a massive disservice both to them and their business, but also to me because I reached out to them often. Like, Hey, oh wow. Like, tell me more about what you do. And, and they'll either be like, Difficult to get back to me or they like will kind of be short or they won't give a ton of information or they'll give the information, but then they never give the invitation.
And think about it from your client's perspective. Like if you were a client and you were having a conversation with someone that you wanted to work with, how awkward would that be if they ever, if they never expressed interest in actually working with you back, right? Like that is what you're doing.
When you're quote unquote selling is you're inviting people to work with you and you're actually sharing with them that you're excited to work with them too. Like they wanna feel wanted, just like you wanna feel wanted for your services. So it's a massive turnoff for me when I'm looking into. What other businesses are doing, or I'm reaching out to them because I'm interested in working with them, and they never actually invite me to do so.
You know, that's, that's pretty much a deal breaker. I'm like, well, if you don't even want, like, do you not even want my business? I don't understand. it's kind of, I don't know. It's almost like you're rejecting them if you're not actually ever inviting them to work with you. So know that that is just, it's so important and like obviously, duh, it's so important.
But you're, you're just doing everyone a disservice. If you're not actually inviting people to work with you, like directly saying, I would love to work with you. Here are your next steps. Like, it's just that simple. what questions do you have? You know, it doesn't have to be, it doesn't have to be complicated.
It doesn't have to be, I don't know. I think people kind of like shroud sales in mystery and make you feel like there's like a particular way that you have to do it and you have to say the things the right way and you ha like, no, no, no. Like you can just simply say, , here's what I do, here's how it helps people.
I would love to work with you. Do you have any questions? Like, your next step is to get on a call with me. Or you know, like, do you need help figuring out which of my offers is the best fit? Like it, it's just a conversation to help them make the right choice and for you to get to know each other. So just don't overcomplicate it.
And, and I think what's really cool about this too, that really hammers home this thing that I'm talking about where people. Sometimes people don't actually, they don't make the pitch, they don't make the sale. And that can be a real turnoff to potential clients. One of my, like amazing clients, Sarah, she just did, a post on social and she's got ads running for this right now and.
it's a whole post all about the fact that people actually like to be sold to, especially when they're like, when you're selling someone a solution to their problem, that's like really comforting. Like people want to know that you can help them and you can solve their problem. And that there's hope for them to like get what they want or to have less of the stuff that they don't want and, and so people like it.
They like to be sold too. So anyway, that's just kind of a side note. I thought that was really cool.
So one other thing that I wanna talk about, like the other side of this that can get missed, maybe two things, but one thing in particular is if selling genuinely does feel hard, and all of the stuff that I just said, you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, that all sounds great, but I still like, mm-hmm.
There's some kind of block here. I can't sell this thing. That's when we need to look at what are you actually selling? Do you not believe in it? Is there something wonky in like the structure? Is there something wonky in the price? Do you not actually wanna work with the people that you're trying to sell things to?
And so, There's, there's some, if there is a block, there is some kind of reason that you have a block to actually selling. So that's when you need to start picking apart your offer and your ideal client and your pricing and your messaging, and you've just gotta pick it apart and see if you can hone in on like a particular thing that you're just like, yeah, I'm, I'm not liking in the way that that feels, I'm not liking the way that that actually plays out in real life.
When I get a client, like, what's the problem? Because there's probably some type of like actual structural, problem with your offer or pricing or something that's preventing you from being able to sell. So a great example of this is, . I had a mastermind at one point, and I've talked about a a lot about this on past podcast episodes, but I had a mastermind that I launched that I got a client in.
And this was like way back when, like right when I started this business and I got one client and then I was instantly like, oh my gosh, no, no, no. Like I don't wanna sell this. I don't even wanna do it. Well, that is a major red flag that deserves some attention. And for me, what it ended up being is it was just bad timing.
I didn't actually want to fulfill the offer. Well, if you don't wanna actually fulfill the thing that you're selling, you don't actually wanna deliver on it gonna be very, very hard for you to get motivated to sell it. And that ended up being the problem that I was having is, I didn't wanna fulfill it because it was bad timing, because the program was gonna overlap with me needing to be on maternity leave.
And so every time I would think about selling it, I would get like massive anxiety and like, oh, no, no, no, I don't. I don't want anyone to buy this. So look for areas of your offer or your pricing or anything that you're like, I don't actually want do that part or that part doesn't feel good. So it could also be your pricing.
Your pricing could be too. And so maybe you're just not excited about actually bringing on a client because you're like, oh my gosh, that's gonna be so much work, and it's just, it's not gonna be worth it for the amount of money that I'm gonna be making. Okay, well, ding, ding, ding. That's a problem. It could also be the other side.
You could be overpriced. If you're overpriced and you don't actually believe the price when you say it out loud to someone, if it doesn't feel good to you, if it doesn't feel in integrity, if it doesn't feel. , if it just doesn't feel believable to you, other people are gonna know that too. And you're gonna avoid getting into situations where you have to tell people your price.
So like, it can be any number of things. It could be the actual structure of the offer. We had a, we had a podcast about this, I think it was an interview I did with Anna Rapp where she was talking about someone, one of her clients offers, the way that it was tructure. , they were like not actually excited to deliver it in that way.
It was like something like a 90 minute call every other week or something. It was something, something a little bit excessive in terms of like the actual time commitment that they were gonna have to make. So that's a another thing too, if there's like a component of the offer that you just don't actually wanna show up for, you don't wanna do it, right?
So, so many things to look at in terms of what could be off on your offer that's making you not excited to. the other big bucket of things is like, if you just don't believe in it, like, if you don't genuinely believe that it's helping people, or if you're not aligned with like the promise that you're giving, you know that that gets into more.
Like, it can get into a lot of mindset stuff, but it can also just get into the fact that maybe you're misaligned on what you're selling and who you're selling it to. Like, I've had businesses in the past where I was like, I just don't like the, I don't like selling this thing because to me it doesn't feel good.
Like I tried to, like right before I started this business, I dabbled in being a business mentor, and I found that I just really was not aligned with that framing. I wasn't aligned with the language of it. I didn't like, Selling myself as a mentor. It didn't feel good. It didn't, didn't feel tangible enough like there was all kinds of hangups that I had around that.
And on, on the one hand, there was definitely some opportunity for, for. Growth personally for me to just more embrace my, my expertise. and so work that I needed to do to like be more confident generally. But also I just didn't like the title. And it's so funny cuz I would bring this up on conver in conversations with my coach and I would be like, I just don't like the way that that sounds, I don't even wanna tell people that I'm a business mentor.
I don't wanna say that out loud. Well that makes it really hard to sell the thing if you're not even excited to say it out loud. Right? So, so think about. Think about all of the things that, that might just not be fully aligned or that might not feel good or might feel hard, or you might just get some ick around and, and there's lots of different ways to tap into that.
For me, it's always usually like a gut reaction. but for you it might be something else. So really see if you can pick things apart. what was the other thing that I was gonna say? So this final thing that I wanna leave you with is about. It, it's, it's kind of related to the fact that I don't think you should overcomplicate selling. So, you know, what we were talking about earlier, just kind of reframing the way that you think about selling, but also not over complicating the tactics and strategies that you used to sell.
So had a, a conversation with a client this week who was hung up on this sales, this sales stuff. , I see this, I, I, this has happened to me before in the past. I see this happening with other people and we, we build up the expectation around what we think we need to do to sell. So selling can be e as easy as posting on your stories about whatever it is that you're selling.
And I personally like to do that with story slides and. , you may be thinking, oh, selling all my stories. I'm gonna have to like, do a video and like talk about things. Like we, we can come up with all kinds of reasons of why we don't actually wanna take the action. Probably because we're thinking about it in, in a way that isn't actually necessary, right?
Like, so when I say selling in stories, everyone will maybe have a different picture in their head about, around what that looks like. Come up with the way for you to sell, that's actually gonna be easy. You don't have to do face to camera videos on stories selling your thing. For me, that would be super uncomfortable.
I'm not gonna do it. I'm just not gonna do it. And so I avoided selling in stories for a really, really long time because I thought that I had to actually talk to the camera to sell my stuff. You don't, right? So really question the. , the approach that you think you have to take to selling in different places.
You don't have to do it a particular way and see if you can find a way that actually would feel easy. So for me, selling in stories is easy because I just make some story slides or I put up a picture and then I type over it. And it's very, very simple. It's very low key. It's not overdone. Like if I felt like I had to, and actually have felt this in the past, if I felt like I had to.
some 15 series story template that, you know, I had to think through like, okay, what's the perfect structure? The first slide needs to be about this, and the second slide needs to be about this, and well, I need to make sure that I also talk through these points. Like that would feel very overwhelming to me.
For other people, you may think that and you're like, oh, that would actually be a really nice structured approach. Like I, if I had a template for like, here's the 15 slides you need to create, maybe that feels easy for you, I don't know, but figure out. Think through what is the approach that you can take that's gonna be easy.
So for me, I like it to be really light and low key and post it on stories when I feel like it. I do have some templates and things that I've used, but don't feel like you have to post testimonials with it and then you have to go get this. Like a lot of times we end up adding a bunch of tasks to our list that we think we have to do before we can take the action that actually.
it, it, helps us avoid taking the action that we need to take because we overcomplicate it. So really thinking about getting super simple with your approach to sales, what's one thing that you can do every, every single day to sell? Maybe it's send an email. Maybe it's to, send a newsletter out to your list.
Maybe it's to post in your stories. Maybe it's post on social media. To engage with people in Facebook groups. Maybe it's to reach out, to do a coffee chat, to make referral connections. Like there are all kinds of different sales activities that you can do. Figure out the ones that feel easy for you and that you enjoy and, and just do those and don't overcomplicate it.
Just figure out what you can actually stick with and be consistent with and enjoy and do authentically. Doesn't have to look the way that everybody else is doing Sales. So there's my rant about sales. I hope that it's helpful and I'll see you on a future episode. Bye.