"Ugh, I hate doing sales.”
“I don't want to sound pushy or salesy."
"I don't have the personality for sales."
Ever had any of these thoughts? Even if you hate sales, even if you think you are not good at it, it’s important to get comfortable with it because sales are an important part of any business. What you may not realize, is every conversation you have is a sales conversation. This blog will walk you through not only how to change your mindset on how you look at sales, but at how to simplify the sales process itself.
How to Shift Your Mindset Around Sales
First ask yourself: ‘How much do you believe in your product?’
You have to believe in your product 1000% because if you don’t, they won’t.
Next, if you are great at what you do and believe in your product but you are not willing to get your product in front of everyone, you have to ask yourself ‘Why do you struggle to get in front of people and talk about what you do?’ You have to figure out what inside of you is stopping you. Is it a wound from the past? Where does the block come from?
Then, you have to just start doing it. That thing you are so sure you DON’T want to do? That is the very thing you need to start doing more of right now. And it may not be pretty at first. Don’t expect to be perfect straight out the gate. If you hate sales, the first thing you need to do is more sales.
Finally, dial in your process and maybe hire a coach to help you. You will learn from trial and error what works for you, but a coach can help speed up that learning curve for you. Everything becomes easier with practice.
Once you have faced your own fears and blocks around sales, it is time to go out and sell. Your process is figuring out what’s stopping you and getting clear on how to communicate the value of your product. Maybe your product is YOU. If you know you can help people it is actually in service to them, to work with you.
In the process of a typical sales conversation, there are specific tactics that will help you understand not only how to listen to your potential client’s needs, but to clearly communicate exactly how you can meet and exceed those needs.
When entering into a sales conversation there is a flow to the process that will help you do just that.
Step 1: Build Rapport
In order for someone to want to buy something from you, they have to trust you. They want to get to know you, and it is just as important for you to get to know them. What does freedom look like and what is really important to them? What does their dream life look like? Get specific, what does that picture perfect vision need exactly?
Step 2: Talk Specifics
If you have asked questions and let them paint a picture with really specific things, now you listen for the obstacles. Imagine their perfect life is on the other side of a rushing river and in the river are all these obstacles/fears preventing them from getting to their dream on the other side. Your product is the bridge that will help them get there and you need to show them how your product is a bridge by addressing how it will help them move past those obstacles. This is what adds value to your product.
Step 3: Get people really honest and vulnerable about where they are right now.
If you don’t know where you are, you can’t possibly get where you want to go. Imagine you are putting your information into a GPS, the first thing you need to know is your starting location. Without that you can’t map your way from point A to point B.
Step 4: Communicate the Value of Your Product
If what you are selling is $25,000 you have to clarify how spending that $25,000 will get them to the destination that is MORE valuable than holding on to that money. You have to be able to communicate the value of your product. If you can lay out your process and the results it gets, you can communicate how those results will be the bridge to your potential client having the life they want.
Communicating your value can look something like this:
This is who I am and why I am great at what I do….
This is my process and here are my results…..
If you want to work with the best I can help you do this in exactly this way….
To help you achieve x, y, and z.
And that is why you should go with me.
Remember, the bigger the problem you can solve, the more money you can make.
At the end of the day, you are what is blocking you. Your mindset or inhibitions in putting yourself front and center is holding you back. Remember, if you have a great product it is your duty to get it out there to the masses. You are being of service, not selling. You care about what your potential clients need, and if what you are offering does not genuinely help them, you can always steer them in another direction. In sales all of people’s fears will come up, but you are there to walk them across a bridge. Later they will thank you for pushing them past their fear of risk and into the next level of their life.