In all my decades of business coaching and helping clients with their marketing and sales, I’ve found that many business owners find that sales is quite daunting, and dare I say, scary. Sales however doesn’t have to be scary or intimidating or something you’d like to avoid like the plague. It can be very satisfying, enjoyable and naturally is healthy for a sustainable business.
Let’s look at how you can avoid that feeling and sense of scariness when it comes to your business sales.
You don’t have to hassle people!
Too often people performing sales roles think they’re hassling their prospect. Sure, if your manner is aggressive or overly persistent and outright annoying, you will be very likely hassling prospects.
You’re helping people!
Good sales people realise they are providing a service, helping people to understand how they can help them and solve a problem and make it easier for a prospect to make a decision. Years ago, I was speaking with a person who helped disabled children. She didn’t want to market herself or sell in any way. I asked if she helped her clients and she said “yes, definitely”. I asked if there are disabled children who don’t deserve to access her service. She said “No, of course not”, then why was she hiding from the public and unwilling to sell? When you sell, you help people to navigate options, make decisions and learn how you can assist. Sales is often about education and advice.
What about people who challenge me, or object?
In sales, an objection is actually the best thing that a prospect can do. If they say “Hey, love what you do, but it’s a bit pricey.” They are not simply saying thanks and disappearing. They are really giving you a chance to tell them why you’re worth it. They are giving you a second chance, so really, we should be saying thank you to them for that opportunity.
I’m lacking confidence when it comes to sales!
Once you get a good sales process, which works and which you’re comfortable with and you practice, you will get better at it. You might even come to like selling (gasp, horror, really? 😊) Once you build up your confidence and practice and get good at it, you will start having some wins and those wins feel great. I’ve been operating businesses for many, many decades and I still get that rush of adrenalin when I close a sale. I can promise you that I used to hate sales, hate selling and thought that almost all salespeople were rip-off artists. I got over those negative mindsets quite some time ago and I can help you shift your mindset too.
You don’t have to be perfect!
Perfectionism can stop some of us from even trying. You feel that until you’re perfect, you can’t start. The problem is that none of us is actually always perfect. Which might mean you’ll never put yourself out there. And remember this too; when you do it, learn, grow and practice, you improve. You might not become perfect, but you become a damn sight better at what you’re doing. Sometimes being a little imperfect and real will make customers feel more comfortable too; therefore a more natural and ‘real’ approach can sometimes be very effective, especially in small business.
When someone says no, you don’t have to be fearful.
Another big aspect of fearing sales is fearing rejection. None of us enjoys hearing ‘no’ but the reality is that ‘no’ happens all the time in sales, work and life. Even as small children, we should/would have heard ‘no!’ to touching the stove, or going near the road. It didn’t damage us, but rather kept us alive. One really important thing to remember is that when someone says no to you in a sales capacity, they are not rejecting you personally. Remember also that it’s a ‘no’ now, not necessarily forever. It might be the case that the timing just isn’t right for them now, or they really do need to think about it. Those can be fob off lines and they can also be incredibly true.
You won’t get abused!
Unless you’re doing telemarketing, but rather responding to a genuine enquiry, there is almost no chance you’re going to be abused if you do the right thing by people, treat them respectfully, give them honest information and help them make good decisions around buying from you. No, I should add, that following up on a lead is not harassment. In fact, if you don’t follow up, you’re not doing your job and you’re annoying people because they then have to follow up with you and do your job. It’s a statistical fact that more than 80% of prospects expect you to follow up with them!
What happens if you don’t sell?
Well quite simply, your business may die a slow death, and even if it doesn’t, it probably won’t reach its full potential. You won’t reach your goal. You won’t make the income that you, your family or the families of your staff need. When you don’t make a reasonable effort at sales, prospects wonder if you even want their business. They wonder if perhaps you’re too busy to take them on, or don’t care about them or perhaps are not good at your job? Only today I attained an appointment from a prospect who had messaged on Facebook looking for a business coach. I got the appointment because I was the only person who even bothered personally reaching out to him. I didn’t go into hard sales mode, I simply had created a great sales process, which was authentic and caring and followed that process.
When it comes to selling, you need to do a few things:
- Know your product or service well
- Care about your product or service (how else can you expect others to care about it?)
- Develop a great sales process that is effective and works well
- Create any resources that you need for that process, just as follow up messages or emails
- Start small and build yourself up to the bigger transactions
- Practice and be constantly on the lookout for ways to improve
- Act promptly and professionally
- Follow the process consistently
- Remember to always follow up – it is absolutely not harassment!
- Keep track of your successes – it will help motivate you to keep going.
As an expert business coach, I work with clients to help them begin selling well, long before the prospect has even reached out to them. I help them create and use great sales processes and I help them develop excellent resources and templates that assist in the process. Often perception and marketing (and customer service) come into our discussions also. I am a fresh set of eyes that often see things you hadn’t even thought of or considered.
I won’t teach you how to hassle people or be that hard salesperson who won’t take no for an answer. I will help you comfortably and confidently improve your sales conversion rate. If you’d like to know more, reach out to me, I’d be happy to have a confidential and complimentary chat to learn more about you and your business. Contact here.
