Sales is a topic many business owners need to bust through so they can find success in their businesses. For many business owners, the first thing that often comes to mind when thinking about sales is, “Ugh, I hate sales!” Everything around sales is heavy, and there is this belief that sales are terrible.
Laura Wright is a super salesperson Ninja, which is one reason I invited her to be on the podcast. She is all things epic at sales and is also a strategic growth coach. She likes to help empowered women sell with ease and do things in a way that creates more income, more growth, sometimes more clients (sometimes less) and really maximize what they have. This is her 22nd year of doing all the sales things that she does. If there is a sales thing to be uncovered, she has probably done something around it.
Sales stereotypes
Most stereotypical sales techniques are coercive. They can be a little sleazy and slimy and not feel good, but if you are not ready to buy and someone's pushing and forcing, it's not going to feel good. Sales is a service. It's meant to feel good.
Even as a business coach, when I get to the end of a sales conversation and I've collected the credit card and someone says to me, “thank you!” I think, “Thank you? Thank you for taking my credit card?” That sounds nuts, but it's because we have created this belief system where sales can’t feel great.
Most business owners don't want to be pushy. They feel that anything that is beyond just very gently telling people what they do is being pushy and makes people feel uncomfortable.
Is sales in your make up?
According to Laura, anyone who has the feeling that they're afraid of being too pushy and too sales-y, should know that they will never be too pushy and sales-y. If you think like that then sales is not in your make up. It’s also important to note that sales is not something that you do to someone.
Sales conversations are meant to be a joined thing and Laura believes it’s a bit like a buyer psychology. If someone is uncomfortable buying something, they're going to clench up and not buy.
Whenever Laura gets on a sales call, she thinks about a few of her clients. They are sitting beside her on every single sales call. One of them was a woman who recently took Laura aside and let her know that she actually saved her life! Laura knew that things were pretty dire with her business when they met, but she didn’t think she understood the full picture of what was going. The work they did together to help her finally gave success in her business, and saved her life. Laura thinks about her every time she gets on a sales call because what if the most loving and kind thing you could do for somebody is stand up and be their advocate? What if instead of you selling at them, you're their partner in creating transformation?
Believe in what you’re selling
The idea is to truly believe that what you're doing is helping. You need to believe that you are creating something that they want in their lives. When you're asking people to commit to something they don't want to do, that is when it feels like too much or too bold or too in their face.
If you're having conversations with the people that you don't really align with or who don't really align with you (because it goes both ways) then that conversation can feel hard.
Another thing that makes sales hard is when you don't know what to do on a call or you're doing something different. When you talk to 30 people and only two people said yes, that can start to bring you down. Then you start to change things you probably shouldn't change. When you have a formula that you can follow, you can actually relax.
When you have a sales process that is flexible and breathable and you can enjoy it, you can detach from the outcome and also know what you can expect. It will just feel better.
Know what you’re selling
You need to know exactly what you're selling. According to Laura, you should be deeply, madly, passionately in love and lit up with all your offers – she is with hers! If you're not passionately excited about your offers or if you don't really believe in them then it will be harder to sell them. Create ways to work with people that don’t just get results, but also allow you to really enjoy the process and be in a great community.
We need to feel good about what we are selling and how we are selling – that makes a big difference in how we have sales conversations.
How to get comfortable with sales
Laura suggests business owners write out a list of people that they would like to sell to. It can be five, 50, 100, that doesn't matter. Then look at this list of people that you would feel really excited to sell something to or bring them on as clients. Then circle all those “hot prospects” first.
Then flip this list upside down and if you have names on your list that you don’t know or don’t feel attached to then I want you to reach out to those people first. Have a couple of conversations, get into a rhythm that makes you feel comfortable. Talk about your offers, and practice your rates like they're a fact. After you're in that rhythm and feeling good, then go to those hot and warm leads and make your invitations.
What will happen is, you'll be well-versed, well-practiced, relaxed, and by the time you talk with those people that you actually feel a little bit attached to, you will have taught yourself how to have detachment and I bet they're going to say yes.
Laura loves to teach sales! If you would like to learn more about how to do a sales call so there are no objections and if they show up, how to walk through them so you can relax and enjoy the process, go to Epicatsales.com/gift. You can also find her on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Epicatsales
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