When I first started my own business 15 years ago, I believed:
- Talking to people was fun, but offering my services to them was not
- If people needed my services, they would come to me
- People saying 'no' was a reflection of the current state of the economy, trends in the industry or that my service was a luxury item
- I wasn’t a ‘salesperson’
- People saying 'no' meant that I wasn’t good at what I did
In essence, I was just scared. Scared of rejection, scared of losing connection with people, scared of what people thought, scared of investing money in upgrading my sales skills as I thought I was doing alright.
I believe there are 3 main reasons people avoid selling:
1. They feel like they’re just not good at selling
2. They don't want to come across as pushy or annoying
3. They don't know the best way to ask for the sale
So how do we overcome these avoidance reasons costing us?
1. Realise that it's an irrational fear
Selling can be associated with feeling uncomfortable, facing rejection and not wanting to come across as one of those pushy, annoying people.
A lot of us have had bad sales experiences.
A lot of people have associated the word sales with being pushy, manipulative, money-focused and twisting people’s arm to buy something they don’t want or need.
I totally get it.
But even though it's a common fear, it doesn't mean it's a worthy fear. In fact, I believe it's an irrational fear.
There are bad sales-people out there. Just as there are bad lawyers, doctors, nurses, teachers and marketers. There are dodgy people in every industry. But that’s no reason to avoid facing our fear of rejection and learning the skill of effective selling.
I believe it’s even more reason to learn the skill – so that we don’t come across in that way and so we can break down our own barriers that are stopping us making the big impact that we can in the world.
The fear reduces when we realise that it's irrational and don't allow it to hold us back.
2. Practice taking small steps
Often we get so close to taking action, but we don't step over the line. We sabotage ourselves.
We download an e-Book, but somehow never get around to reading it.
We hear about a great audiobook or podcast, but we never get around to listening to it.
Or we listen to it, but then think that knowing about sales means we are good at it.
We write 'Make phone calls' on our To-Do list, but somehow it keeps getting pushed to the bottom of our list.
To help our brain overcome the fear, we need to take regular, consistent brave action. Our brain will realise that we are fine (we didn't die) and the fear starts to diminish.
When we take steps, even while we're still feeling fear, we improve the skill. We increase our confidence. We learn how to make sure that we don't make mistakes and sabotage our relationships and connections with people.
3. Educate yourself
Before I educated myself properly about true ethical influence and sales, I got OK results in my business. I helped a lot of people over the years. But because I didn't spend time learning the skills properly, I limited myself and my potential in so many ways.
I know now that I could have helped a LOT more people if I had educated myself earlier.
Once I stopped focusing on myself and my fears and invested into this skill, I realised that I could I make a difference to more people’s lives and help more people to make their dreams come true.
My results soared, along with my confidence and was able to help many more people to get what they wanted.
I see so many business owners struggling to sign up clients or sell their programs because of fear and because they don't have the right structure or skills to sell authentically.
Which is why I created the 'Selling With Soul' Workshop.
It’s a brand new 1-day course I’ve created specifically for coaches, trainers and service-based professionals how to sell with heart.
It's a way of selling that feels fully authentic, enjoyable and aligned to who you are.
Recently I was working with my client Aimee Campos, from ‘Dream Wedding Dance’ and by applying the formula, her conversion rate went from 50% to 92%!
In the upcoming workshop, I’ll be sharing all the tools and techniques that you can use to successfully sign up clients who would love to work with you - and do it authentically and with integrity.
I’m going to share all the behind the scenes tools and techniques to become fully booked.
So if you want more clients and you want to make a real difference in people’s lives, I invite you to join me at my next 1-day course ...
coming up on Saturday 6th October.
Kat
P.S I won’t be running this workshop again for another 6 months, so if you want to earn a bigger income, help more people and make a bigger impact, grab your ticket now before they're all snapped up!
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