If you’re in business. I’m sure that you understand the importance of converting leads into clients.
A lot of business owners really don’t like this idea of being salesy, pushy, or coming across awkward. I get it, because I hate being perceived that way also.
We’ve all been in a sales conversation where we’ve felt that the person doesn’t really care about us and they’re just trying to push the product or the service on us. When I started out in business I really hated selling, but the truth was, I just didn’t understand it.
I remember being at an event once and the guy said to raise your hand if you’re in sales. I was a personal trainer at the time, and there were hundreds of us at the event. No one raised their hand. And he said, “Well, you’ve already lost the game if you don’t view yourself as being in sales.”
I remember getting this really icky feeling that I did not want to be known as a salesperson in business. But here’s the thing; when you attract the right people who are a great match for what you’re offering, it doesn’t feel like selling.
It actually feels like an enjoyable conversation and experience. It feels so natural and it just flows. You don’t have to think about what tactic you will use and how you will overcome an objection.
So how do we actually do this effortlessly?
When I talk about converting quality clients, I’m not just talking about just anyone. I’m talking about your ideal clients who are your dream clients.
Your dream clients are those who have all the traits and elements you put into your ideal client avatar, when when you planned out who your ideal clients are. So for example, your ideal client knows a lot less than you about the topic you are speaking about.
A lot of people show up with imposter syndrome, feeling like they are not wanting to sell because they feel like they don’t know enough. So you want to design your ideal client avatar for people who are way further back in the journey than where you are.
When you get the right people into that conversation, then you’re able to influence them for good. You’re able to help them to overcome the block that’s in their way. You’re able to help with the problem they are experiencing by offering the solution.
True influence is helping people find a solution. It’s helping people go from what I call, pain to paradise. It’s helping people so they can overcome the problem and overcome the block that is stopping them from taking action.
If you don’t do that, then you’re leaving them suffering and stuck in their pain. So if you want to be able to elegantly convert people and not feel like you’re a salesperson, then learning true influence is what will help you convert people into paying clients.
Since 2003 I’ve been working with thousands of people to make positive changes and get breakthroughs in their lives and business. I started out working as a personal trainer, helping coach people with weight loss, fitness, and bodybuilding.
Throughout my whole journey of 18 years in business, the main thing I’ve been doing is helping people get breakthroughs in their lives. When you think about a breakthrough, it’s like a penny drops and people get that aha moment and have a revelation and an epiphany.
I heard someone say once that it’s best to be deliberate, not desperate. I love that! You don’t want to come across as desperate because desperate energy puts people off. One of my mentors Ben Harvey says that buying begins the breakthrough.
Think about when you’ve had a breakthrough. Often it’s because you’ve invested somehow in your breakthrough. You’ve paid to go to a seminar, course or event workshop and you’ve had a breakthrough.
Having a breakthrough feels incredible and breakthroughs start because we make a decision to take action. Usually, that decision to take action is because someone has influenced you. When you have the right heart and the right mode of influence, you will help someone improve the quality of their life.
I really want you to view sales as helping someone discover what they are missing. It’s not about changing someone’s mind. It’s about helping someone to deal with the problem they are struggling with.
This takes the pressure off you and you become excited to tell people what you do. If you’re in business, you have to constantly be telling people about what you do. It’s so important that you know how to sell especially if you’re a coach, consultant, healer, author, speaker or practitioner, and you want to help people improve their lives.
You won’t be in business if you don’t sell, so you have to learn to confidently and boldly tell people what you do. If you want to help more people and make a bigger difference in the world, sales is one of the most important skills that you can develop.
I remember sitting in an event once with Jeffrey Slater and he said that sales is the skill you do not want to learn, but it’s the skill you most have to learn. Most people don’t want to learn sales, but without learning sales, you will have to go back to working a normal job.
In discussing the best ways to find a quality client, I’m assuming that you have a heart to really make a difference in the lives of people and I’m also assuming you’re not trying to sell someone something they do not need. I also assume that you have a good offer, because without a good offer, then you’ve got nothing to offer anyone.
To craft a good offer, you need to have lots of quality, real-life conversations with people, that you ask specific questions that address their needs. These conversations help you to craft an offer that is needed and that you are proud of and want to share.
When you have a fantastic offer, then you can start having quality conversations that will bring you ideal clients that are a match. So how do we make that match with quality clients?
1 – Awaken Their Future Identity
Everybody has what I call a BFS, a best future self. Everyone has something that they want to improve in their lives. It could be being a healthier, fitter version of themselves. It could be having a stronger relationship or marriage, or it could be improving the way they parent.
The first way to influence some positive change is to awaken that vision and identity of who the person wants to be. This goes so much deeper than just what they want to have, it’s actually about who they want to be.
People don’t want to buy your product or service, and they don’t want a coaching session. They don’t want an 8-week course or to watch your 27 videos. They want to be the best version of themselves in the future.
In order to awaken that vision, you don’t just want to focus on the method of how you help people or the features of your program. You want to focus on awakening in them the best version of themselves, that may have been lying dormant in their minds for many years.
You’ve got to craft your questions in an elegant way, to remind them of who they want to be. People get buried under all the yuck of life and they forget who they want to become. It’s your job to remind them.
I think of selling as a coaching session. So much of coaching is about asking the right questions and helping people change their perception. At the end of a coaching session if we’re a match, then the person will become a client.
Asking the right questions takes planning and it’s a skill you develop. It’s important for people to get a vision to see, hear and feel what it would be like living in the best version of themselves.
You want to ask people to remember that vision of being their best self and also you need to ask why it’s important to them. This takes time. You’ve got to really listen intently, you’ve got to notice shifts in their body language, and notice what lights them up.
Notice their keywords, their body language, and the shift in the tonality of their voice. You’ve got to be able to sense how people are and you’ve got to be able to see them physically to see their visual cues. This is why having a video call is so important. Sometimes you have to go digging for the BFS goal because it’s not always top of mind with people.
So many people when they’re having sales conversations, don’t understand this. They like to rush the conversations. I used to do this myself. Understanding people’s future vision is so important.
I remember when I was a personal trainer, I just wanted to get people out into the gym, instead of really taking that time to understand what they want and why it’s important to them. This helps so you can motivate them when things get hard.
Back in my PT days, I just ask client’s how long they’ve been in the state and what they wanted to fix. And then I’d try and get them into a 12-week challenge so they could start losing the weight without understanding their motivating factors or what would drive them to change.
When you’re talking to people, really take notes of the words that they’re connected to. Take note of when people are passionate and note when you see a shift in their body.
2 – Educate Them
The market has really changed from a buying perspective and we’ve changed how we interact. People are more educated now than ever before. You can pull out your phone and educate yourself very easily, no matter where you are.
The idea of selling is not really selling anymore. You can sell without feeling like you’re selling, by doing education-based selling. Education-based selling is completely different.
The cool thing about this new marketplace is that if you enjoy teaching, training, and educating people, you’re in a good position to understand how to influence somebody.
When I have a conversation with someone who potentially wants to get some coaching or wants a mentoring program, rather than going through outdated sales techniques from years ago, I educate people in my conversations.
Back in 2003 when I did my apprenticeship at the gym, conversations were very scripted instead of being dynamic conversation. It wasn’t about education. Now what I do instead of talking about the features of my program, I educate people.
When I talk to someone who is struggling in their business and they want more clients, or they are wanting to improve their presenting or copywriting skills, I’ll educate them on what’s working right now for my business to help get clients.
People don’t really care about your product or program or if you give tech support. They just want to know that you’re able to give them what they desire in life, and this is where you can show them that you’re the expert and you do this through educating people.
When you take the time to educate your clients, it can really dramatically shift things, especially with quality clients. Quality clients need to be educated, they need to understand why you are different in terms of the result you can offer.
I use a 3- step method for this, and I call it the CPR method. It’s like resuscitating someone who is sick, but you’re resuscitating their vision of their best future self in the midst of educating them.
C – Credibility
If you want to influence someone, share your credibility, your experience, knowledge, and skills. Share why someone would want to work with you.
I remember when I worked as a gym instructor in New Zealand. There was a trainer there who would see someone doing an exercise wrong. Instead of walking up to them and saying to the person, “Hey, I’m Bob and I’ve been training people for the last 5 years. Do you mind if I give you a quick tip on how to protect your back?”
He would shout out across the gym and tell people what they were doing wrong. It would cause people to get really embarrassed and I would cringe when I heard it, because he would embarrass people publicly. He wouldn’t tell people about his years of training people, which would give him credibility. He would just yell at people.
So anytime you want to educate someone, you need to frame it around your credibility.
P – Process
Sharing your process with people is really important. Tell people what your process is, share that your process is step-by-step and explain how you’ve organised your knowledge. People love organised knowledge.
In a conversation, this might look like, “Hey Tommy, so I heard you say you want to work full time in your business so that you can have the flexibility of working from home. Is this right? So, over the last 18 years of working in business I’ve discovered there are 3 main problems people face when it comes to business…”
In my strategy sessions after I ask the key question, I then create a roadmap for the person and explain how the coaching would get them results. I explain step-by-step how things will progress and I show how my knowledge is organised. People love a step-by-step strategy.
R- Results
You want to share the results you are seeing when people follow your process. You might say, “Sally followed this process and she was able to make 10k a month and was able to increase her conversion rate from 50% to 70%.”
Share your client stories and describe the results client’s got when they followed your process.
3 – You Are The Prize
You are the prize. Say it out loud with me, “I am the prize!”
There are thousands of people that you could potentially be coaching or mentoring and there’s only ONE of you.
Your time is limited, so you only want to work with quality people. If you’re working one-on-one with people, you want quality people to book into your calendar. You don’t need people wasting your time.
You want people who are ready and are seriously committed. You only want to deal with people who want to work with you, who trust you, and who want to take action.
Money is a commodity. You can get money from anywhere, but you only have one you. If you’re coming in with an energy of chasing a person in a strategy session, and if they feel like prey being targeted, people are going to run away.
However, if you come in totally neutral and you’re not chasing, you become the magnet. You know you’re the prize because you’re good at what you do. You want to attract the right clients and repel the wrong ones like a magnet attracts and also repels.
It all comes down to presenting to people the opportunity to improve the quality of their life.
You don’t need to try and convince your ideal clients, you want to find people who are already convinced because you’ve educated them and you’ve provided valuable content.
So the goal with sales is matchmaking, not trying to sign everyone up. It’s about matchmaking with your truly ideal, right-fit client.
So if you want to be known as the one that people chase, rather than being chased by them…
I’d like to invite you to a free client attraction strategy session.
I work together with my clients to:
1) Make your offer irresistible. I help you get clear on the best packaging and pricing for your stage in business and the stage that your ideal clients are at.
2) Clarify your language. I help you understand the beliefs your ideal clients have and what you want them to believe.
3) Creating organic, compelling content that converts. I use my proven process to craft the right language that calls in truly ideal, quality clients. This will ensure you get enquiries from your content.
In order to be the best candidate to get results, it’s best if you have experience serving clients in your area of expertise and getting results, and already have an idea of what problem you solve and who you enjoy helping.
If you’re interested, message me on Facebook or email me at info@katmillar.com and we’ll have a chat and see if you are a good fit.
I look forward to chatting with you!
Kat
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