Kat Millar

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5 Non-Sleazy Sales Secrets 

Sales… I know a lot of us don’t particularly love that word. It can conjure up images of people pushing their product on you that you don’t want…

…or some sleazy car salesman saying “Just for you, just today”…

Yechhh…

Because of all the conditioning we’ve received around sales people (i.e. people doing it in such a yucky way)…

… so many of us have resisted learning about sales because we thought selling meant being pushy.

When I left my corporate job in 2003 and became a personal trainer, I did NOT want to think of myself as being a sales person.

I just wanted to help people transform their bodies and their lives.

I remember going to a seminar once where the guy said, ‘Raise your hand if you’re in sales’. There was about 50 of us personal trainers sitting there in the room.

No one raised their hand! The guy said, “Well, good luck ever trying to grow your business and get more clients, if you don’t think of yourself as a sales person.”

I remember resisting what he was saying, even though he explained all the benefits of thinking of yourself as a sales person.The thought of being in ‘sales’ felt so disgusting and gross to me, I hated it. I thought if people wanted to work with me, they’d come to me. I didn’t want to have to convince anyone of anything or feel like I was being pushy.

As I went through my business journey,  I finally learned that there is a right and a wrong way to sell. Selling the right way is not being pushy, manipulative or trying to convince someone to do something they don’t want to do.

Selling correctly is what helps someone to change their life by investing in themselves. It’s what leads to their breakthrough.

So many business owners avoid the skill of sales because they don’t want to be spending time thinking about it – and it costs them greatly.

If you struggle to think of yourself as a sales person, start thinking about selling as influence. There is an art to influencing and inspiring someone to make a decision that can help them get out of pain and improve their lives.

And you can do it elegantly and authentically.

If you don’t believe that your product or service will help people improve the quality of their life, you shouldn’t be selling it.

If you are afraid of making someone an offer to buy something that could help them, you don’t have a conviction around what you’re offering.

It’s super important that you have an offer that you really want to share with people, and that you’re not afraid to share.

You can be great at marketing, presenting, making content and helping people get breakthroughs, but if you can’t sell your services, your business won’t last.

Sales is the lifeblood of your business. If you’re a business owner, it’s the only one way to increase the numbers in your bank account.

Sales equals freedom. Your ability to sell is in direct relation to how free you’re going to be in your business and life.

If you can master this skill, it will be a game-changer for your business.

I heard a statistic recently that I found interesting…

86% of people will pay more for a good experience.

People are wanting a good experience when it comes to buying from you and they’re willing to pay for it.

Here are 5 effective non-sleazy sales skills that will help you to sign up more clients…

1- Preparation

A lot of people aren’t prepared when they get on a sales call, and they flounder about, mumble and ask random questions that aren’t helpful. They do a lot of talking about their product.

We need to flip it so the person you’re talking to, is doing at least 70 to 80% of the talking.

Business people talk about their features and all the different things about the coaching program, but they don’t ask the right questions and they haven’t prepared well for the conversation.

You want to research your client’s situation, so you’re super clear on their pain points and their problems, their dreams and their desires. These are the four things that I’m always thinking about what am I am talking to a potential client.

I’m thinking about the client’s pain, problems, dreams and desires. You need to know these things, so you can help people to get a breakthrough, have a paradigm shift and realise they need to invest in themselves to get a good result.

You also need to research and understand the market. What’s happening in the trends and the marketplace. What’s current right now in your industry?

I recommend having a really good toolkit of awesome questions that you can ask. For example, when I jump into a discovery session or some type of clarity call with people, I’m always thinking about all the powerful questions to help them describe where they are currently at, and where they want to be.

The powerful questions I ask, help them articulate to me where they want to be in their best future self, their vision, their challenges and the consequences if they do and do not invest in themselves.

I use an ABC process:

Where ARE  you now?

Where do you want to BE?

What CHALLENGES are in your way?

I also go into what consequences they will have if they DO change and if they DON’T change.

You can say things like, “Hey by the way, if you don’t change, what will your life be like in 12 months’ time?  How about in 3 years’ time? And what will life be like if you do invest in yourself and make a change in this area?”

I used to work at Les Mills, which was a big chain in New Zealand, who had some of the best systems in the world. Their sales systems were immaculate! One of their sales questions was, ‘If you don’t change, what will your life be like?’ We were told to sit with people in this pain.

I didn’t want to do this, until I realised that I’m actually doing people a disservice if I’m not willing to sit in the pain with them. I needed to get in the hole with them and say, ‘I understand! Let’s climb out of this hole together.’

I know this sounds uncomfortable to get in a hole with someone, but if you had a loved one who was smoking and they had lung cancer and were going to die. Would you try to help them? You don’t want to be pushy. You want them to make a good, healthy decision.

Often people don’t think about the trajectory that they’re on. So it’s really important you do your preparation and you get some powerful questions, that bring things to the surface for people.

You’re not causing pain to the person, you’re highlighting the pain they will feel if they don’t change.

2 –  Positioning

When you’re having a sales conversation, there are two main positions that I recommend that you have. The first one is a position of credibility. Make sure you highlight your credibility.

The second position is humility. Credibility and humility go hand in hand and there is a sweet spot in the middle. You don’t want to be blowing your own trumpet too much, but you also want to help people understand that you can help them. You can say, ‘I’ve been blessed to work with some amazing people that I’ve learned a lot from in my career.’

There are 3 C’s that you need to have when you’re in a sales conversation:

  • Conviction
  • Confidence
  • Certainty

Conviction
You need to have 100% conviction, certainty and confidence when you are talking in a sales conversation. You need the conviction that what you’re offering is valuable, that it’s going to help people to get the result that they want.

Confidence
You want to have strong confidence. Can you imagine buying from someone who’s not confident? No, I can’t either!

Certainty
You need to have certainty about what you’re saying. This goes to your credibility. You highlight your strengths, your experience, your credentials, your expertise, qualifications, skills and your knowledge. And you need to do it with a certainty in your voice and tone.

Having humility when you’re presenting your credibility is important. Humility is all about gratitude and being grateful. It’s acknowledging your mentors and admitting you are standing on the shoulders of giants.

This is key. You don’t want to put yourself on a pedestal. You can share how you’ve learned so much from your business mentor and that through them you have been able to build your signature system.

So positioning, credibility and humility all go together. It’s really important in your sales call, that you’re the leader that you’re leading the conversation. You want them to feel that they’re in safe hands and that you are taking them on a pathway.

3 –  Presence

There are two things with presence. Firstly, you need to be really present in the moment with the person you are talking to. Notice what they are saying, what their body is saying if you’re on a video call.

If I’m on a video call with someone that I’m helping or it’s a strategy call, I’m not just listening for the words, I’m listening to the tonality. I’m watching their body language and taking note of what they are not saying.

I’m looking for every little sign to see if they can grow, if we are aligned and they are committed to really bring change into their lives. If someone’s tonality is out of alignment with their body language, I would take that into account in my manner of talking to them.

You can tell if someone is not present if they’re looking or sounding distracted. If you hold the moment and listen intently, you can pick up so much about what people are saying.

Deep listening speaks a lot to people. It feels terrible when people don’t listen to you. But if you’re responding and reacting to what the person is saying and then repeating back their power words and their emotional words, it feels amazing. And we can only do this when we are being truly present.

The second thing is your presence. Your actual presence is crucial. You want to make sure you’re coming from a place of genuine curiosity and caring. Have conviction and also come from a place of caring and love.

My thought is always, how can I help this person get what they want? How can I help them achieve what they need? This person has all the resources that they need. They have the power and everything they need to succeed within them.

4 – Prizing

Prizing is all about remembering that you are the prize. 

This is all about you valuing yourself.

This doesn’t mean that you are better than other people, but you’ve got to remember that they have a problem and you have the solution.

A lot of people go into sales calls thinking, “I’ve got a problem and I need to pay my bills. I need to sell to this person and they are going to pay my bills.”

This is not the energy that you want to come across with in a sales call.

You want to be totally detached from the outcome. You want to be committed and caring to them, but you need to detach from whether they buy from you or not. And that’s knowing that you’re the prize.

You don’t have to convince them of anything.

I’ve heard it described as like cats and dogs. Dogs are really excited and they come running up to you. But cats are completely different. They sit and groom themselves, and they know you will come up and pat them, because they know they are the prize.

If you think of the contrast, you have some really excited person, saying please, please, please pay attention to me, come and buy from me. Whereas, someone that knows they are the prize will think that they are the solution to a person’s problem.

As a coach you don’t want hundreds of people. You only want 10-20 people, so it’s important to fill your calendar with the people that are exactly the right match for you.

5 – Playfulness

When you’re doing sales, you need to be relaxed and have a little fun. It’s okay to be cheeky and fun. People will relate with you and want to be around you if you know how to have a little bit of fun. Don’t be so rigid and take it too seriously.

Of course, you still need to remain professional and helpful. It’s a balance.

But most people are more likely to buy from someone who is having fun and enjoying themselves.

Many people get so attached to making a sale, that they forget to let go and have fun in the process.

If you ever watched “The Apprentice” you’d see that the people who were friendly and playful would be the ones who made the most sales and had the most enjoyable conversations.

 

 

Are you struggling to sign up clients and would like to know how to better influence and inspire people to take action?

If you haven’t already had a free session with me, I offer a free 45 minute strategy session where I give you a strategy for your best next steps to grow your business.

Apply Here For Your Free Strategy Session 

 

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3 Essential Skills For Getting Fully Booked With Clients

If you are a coach or service-based business owner, or you want to be, and if you want to get fully booked with paid clients that are going to pay you what you’re worth, you’re in the right place.

Over the years I’ve been so blessed to work with hundreds of business owners, and I’ve noticed there are 3 main problems entrepreneurs face when it comes to getting more clients.

The first problem is a lack of strategy.

When you don’t have a clear, effective strategy with actionable steps, that you’re doing on a day-to-day basis, it’s very hard to grow your business.

In my last blog, I shared how to create the right strategy. If you missed it, you can check it out here…

The second problem is a lack of skills, and that’s what I’m going to be sharing with you today.

The third problem I see is a lack of support.

Many entrepreneurs don’t realise the power of having a supportive community and a mentor. When they come up against roadblocks (which we always do in business, right!), they get stuck, discouraged and many businesses fail.

In this three-part series, I’m unpacking each of these three problems and how you can overcome them.

There are 3 essential skills that you need to have to attract the right clients – and not just any clients, but the right people for you who are going to pay you what you’re worth, and that you’re going to be able to help create breakthroughs and a brilliant transformation in their life.

I noticed that a lot of entrepreneurs, coaches, service-based business owners are really good at what they do.

For example, if you are a mindset coach you’re probably skilled at helping someone to release limiting beliefs, overcome fixed mindsets, and barriers.

If you’re a relationship coach, you’re probably skilled at helping someone overcome conflict and create a deeper connection.

If you’re a career coach, you’re probably skilled at helping someone find the right job for the.

But it doesn’t matter how good you are at these industry skills or at your craft, if you don’t have the right business skills, it’s like having half a business. And without these skills, you’re not going to make it in business.

There are 3 main skills you need to get more clients.

1 – Client Attraction Skills

The first skill is client attraction. There are a number of parts when it comes to marketing and being able to attract the right clients for you. Client attraction skills is about marketing specifically to get clients.

There is a difference between the way you market a service, compared to how you market a product.

So if you’re a coach or have a service and you’re selling time with you, or you’re selling your expertise as a subject matter expert, you’ve got to get good at marketing specifically for client attraction.

Content Creation 

Getting really good at creating content is key. You’ve got to create valuable written and video content, and consistently provide value to your target market.

Are you consistently showing up and giving valuable, helpful, relevant content to your clients, at least once a week?

Are you regularly sharing valuable content on social media, on your website and on email?

There’s a saying in marketing “Don’t build on someone else’s land”.

What that means is don’t just try and build your business on social media. Social media is an amazing way to connect with people, to build rapport, to get people to know, like you and trust you.

Social media is about building relationships. It’s relationship marketing.

But you also need to be able to have your own land, which is your own website and your own email service provider.

You need to be sending out regular emails at least weekly, because email open rates are so much higher than you’ll ever get on social media unless you’ve got a massive budget to spend on Facebook ads.

It’s very unlikely you can build a really profitable, successful business just through social media. I don’t know a way to do it. And if you do figure out a way then let me know! But I’ve never seen it happen. Every successful business owner I know has a great email list.

Your email list doesn’t need to be massive,  but you need people who you can market to, nurture, look after, and give value to through email. You also need to be consistently posting on your website.

Copywriting

Copywriting is the words you use to attract clients. You need to develop the skill of copywriting, because copywriting is usually what is letting you down if your marketing is not working.

If you try to launch an online course, a webinar, or a freebie and it didn’t gain you clients, more than likely it’s because of the copy you used.

Your video skills don’t have to be perfect, but your copywriting has to speak to your ideal client. You need to hone your skill of copywriting and it’s so important that you know the language that your ideal client resonates with so that you connect with them.

You want people to read your writing and think, ‘It’s like they have been overhearing my conversations!’ You want to have so many conversations with people so that you understand how you can best help them.

Ask people what they’re struggling with, what roadblock they are encountering, and ask people how you can help them overcome their problems.

I coached hundreds and hundreds of people with so many free discovery sessions. I would pour my heart into people, even if they weren’t going to sign up with me, because of all that I learned.

The coaching experience was such a valuable experience. Doing these sessions helped me understand what people needed help with, and where I could come in and help them. These sessions helped me understand my target market’s language.

The best way to get good at copywriting is to do it and to follow other people who are great at writing copy.

I consume a lot of copywriting. I love reading Facebook ads, because someone is investing money into making sure the copywriting on those Facebook ads is good. If you scroll past Facebook ads and you just use Facebook for fun, it’s not going to help you grow your business.

You might want to create a file of Facebook ads. I do this on Evernote, an organisation system. I have created a file called ‘Facebook ads’ and I put a whole heap of Facebook ad wording in there, to get ideas to get better as a copywriter.

Communicating your value

You also need to get really good at communicating your value and influencing people to take action – through your written and video content.

It’s so important that you know how to effectively speak to your ideal clients’ frustrations, fears, dreams and desires and clearly articulate how you can help people.

2 – Sales Skills

The second skill is selling. Many people cringe when they hear the word sales and selling.

I used to as well – I thought sales people were pushy and I would avoid it. I thought of sales as having to try to convince someone to buy from me. I didn’t realise that there’s a way of selling that feels enjoyable for both people.

If what you offer people improves the quality of someone’s life, you are doing them a disservice not to share it with them.

After doing a sales course, something clicked in my head that I was thinking too much about myself and what others might think of me, rather than actually helping them.

I had to totally reframe what I understood sales to be.

I now see selling as service. Selling is helping. Selling is caring.

If you’re ethically and authentically helping someone improve their life, why would you not want to tell people about how you can help them?

Every time I’ve bought from a mentor or an expert, or I bought a course or some form of education, my life has improved. In fact, the return on investment that I’ve had in investing in education and coaching is unbelievable.

I love buying education. I love buying from coaches and mentors. That is what accelerates your growth and gives you rapid results. When I started investing lots of money, I got incredible results.

By buying education, I now don’t ever have to work for anyone ever again! That is a BEAUTIFUL thing.

I can work for myself at home. I can make a six-figure income, because I’ve invested in coaching and education. I could never repay those people for how much they’ve helped me.

When you think of sales like that, when you think of the things that you’re so grateful that you purchased, it makes you want to inspire people to buy.

The word sales can have connotations of an 80’s car salesman. If you have that feeling, it may help to reframe it and think of sales as inspiring people to buy.

Think of it as sharing your message so someone can breakthrough into a new place in their life.

Developing the skill of sales is extremely important if you want to make it in business. You’ve got to learn how to do it correctly and authentically and then practice it.

When you have the skill of being able to sell, you can make money anytime, anywhere and that’s priceless.

3 – Presenting Skills

The third skill I recommend that you develop in order to attract your ideal clients is the skill of presenting. The world has changed and people are realising how easy it is to build a business through being at home.

But to make it as a coach or service-provider, you’ve got to get good on video. You cannot hide behind words anymore. People want to connect with you.

It’s different if you’ve got a product you’re selling. People don’t necessarily need to connect with you as a person.

But if people are buying time with you, they want to see you and hear you.

How willing are you to put aside your self-consciousness and show up on video?

A lot of people aren’t willing to do this. They hide behind written words. They don’t jump on video. Or, they jump on video but they haven’t practiced. They haven’t organised their knowledge and they haven’t put their knowledge into clear, actionable steps.

And when it comes to video, people are watching to see how consistent you are at showing up.

The skill of presenting is learnable. You don’t have to be an extrovert. I’m not. You don’t have to be super confident either. You just have to believe in what you’re sharing. You have to know it’s true. You have to have done it yourself, so you share with authenticity and integrity.

You’ve got to be willing to present yourself, show up with confidence, and give value.

If you take the time to hone these skills, learn from an expert, keep growing, improving and showing up, there’s no reason why you can’t get fully booked with clients, make an incredible income and help so many people.

You’re building an asset and a legacy that will keep going and going, once you know how to attract clients, know how to inspire them to buy and know how to present.

The sky will be your limit and your income will have no ceiling.

Then you don’t have to rely on someone else paying you every single week. You can make your own money.

If you can stop being distracted by everything that you could be doing in business and start honing these three skills, you can make money fast.

Something I LOVE about entrepreneurship is that the playing field is equal for everyone. You don’t have to have a formal education. You don’t have to have been born in a certain generation that understands tech. You don’t have to be a ‘natural’ marketer, sales person or presenter. All of these skills are learnable for everyone.

If you want to develop these three skills, then I highly recommend that you join me next week on Facebook Live in my Amplify Your Influence group.

We will be talking about the third problem that most entrepreneurs make, which is not having the right support that is what accelerates your growth.

I will be unpacking how you can develop these skills in a free workshop that I’m holding on August 8th, 2020.

This is a new full-day online workshop. I will be showing you how to develop these skills, how to attract clients and I’ll also be giving you feedback on your own business, and helping you with where your gaps and your weaknesses are.

You’ll walk away with a clear marketing roadmap and you’ll also get my 5-step client attraction formula, with all the slides, the workbook, and resources.

Learn more about the ‘Attract New Clients With Ease Workshop

Looking forward to seeing you!

Kat

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7 Reasons Why People Don’t Buy & How To Overcome Them Through Your Content

Are you a service-based business struggling to get clients?

It’s so important that we understand the psychology of the people who are in our communities and following us…

…and understanding the deeper mindset of people who may buy your services.

I’ve found there are 7 reasons why people don’t buy.  In this video and article, I unpack those 7 reasons and give you the keys to overcome them through your content.

1 –  They Don’t Trust You

Now more than ever, building trust is key for connecting with your ideal client.

How we can overcome this through our content is by showing our credibility.

You want to remind people of your experience, skills, knowledge, and make sure you do it confidently.

(When was the last time you bought a service from an unconfident person??)

You might be thinking you don’t want to come across as bragging or being vain, but if you don’t sell yourself, no one else will. You need to be confident in order to build trust.

Think about someone who you have invested financially in, whether they are a relationship coach, a business coach or someone similar. You invested in them because you trusted them right?

Another great way to build trust is to be consistent in our content.

As a service-based business, trust is built through consistency and repetition. It’s about regularly showing up, putting out quality content in blogs, videos, Facebook Lives etc. and giving value. This increases your credibility.

Show up consistently and share about how you have helped people.

Talk about your years of experience and highlight your strengths. Talk about how many people you’ve worked with and who you’ve trained under for example.

If you haven’t got any clients yet, talk about the education that you’ve done.

You could state that over the last 20 years you’ve been fascinated by personal development and you’ve done xyz courses and you’ve read specific books.

You can say you’ve been researching your topic for xyz number of years.

You can also talk about your mentors and their success.  No matter where you’re starting from, you have to show your credibility, you’ve got to play to your strengths.

2 – They Don’t Trust Themselves

The next reason people don’t buy is because they don’t trust themselves to get a result.

This is one of the hardest reasons to overcome.  People may trust you and know you can get them results.

However, they may not trust that they are going to do the work to become successful themselves.

People have to be pretty vulnerable to admit this. There are not many people want to admit that they procrastinate or may prioritise other things over your service. Often people will give an excuse rather than admit.

Who of you have downloaded a course and never logged in? I have started so many online courses and haven’t finished them! I know I’m not the only one!

The success rate is less than 10% when people undertake online courses. This means 90% of people who sign up for a course don’t actually complete them.

People don’t always trust themselves to complete a course. You can layout how easy it is, in a step-by-step manner and still, some people don’t trust that they are smart or savvy enough to actually do it.

3 – They Don’t Trust External Factors

There may be a problem with your industry in general, so the trust may be low in the public’s perception of what you do. This is where you’ve got to show how you’re different.

For example; someone may have had a bad experience with a yoga teacher and they may paint you with the same brush if you are a yoga teacher. So, it’s really important that you show how you’re different.

When I was a personal trainer, I had to always overcome people’s negative perceptions. Some people thought that I was going to be nasty and make them do horrible things that they didn’t want to do. People were surprised when I told them that I won’t make them do anything they don’t want to do.

You’ve got to use your content to overcome these objections that potential clients are thinking and show how you’re different.

4 – They Don’t See The Value

When people don’t see your value, it’s rarely a problem with affordability.

You may think about having having some lower price-point products, so that people could jump onto your online course or group coaching program, for example, if they can’t afford your one-on-one services.

Creating a payment plan is another good option to offer people.

Obviously you’re not targeting people who are completely broke, but you’re targeting those who are your ideal client and have money to invest. You can’t build a business trying to convince people who have no money to pay you money.

People will invest when they can see a return of investment. You need to show people the possibility of getting more back than what they are paying for.

Fear of change is the number one fear in humans. Offering people a solution in which they have to change can be daunting. So you have to show them that change is safe, that they can do it and you are going to support them through it.

You also need to show people that they are going to get more back from investing in you and your service. We typically fear change because our brain doesn’t want to suffer a loss.

So you need to show people that they are going to get a great return for their investment.

Give evidence-based case studies and examples to support your claims.

5 –  Fear of Negative Emotions

Fear of negative emotions can range from disappointment, that people may not get a result.

The negative emotion could be guilt. Guilt could come from people paying and feeling guilty because they’ve wasted your time.

Someone may have issues of not wanting to invest money if they’ve got a partner and feel guilty for investing in themselves.

Any kind of worry, doubt, any type of fear, guilt, or shame can stop people from wanting to buy. You can overcome these doubts and fears through stories and FAQs.

For my Accelerator program, on my website, I have commonly asked questions, so people that are asking ‘What if…’ or “Can I put this as a tax write off?’ I give them answers to their questions through the content on my landing page.

6 – Fear of Failure

Fear of failure can be a massive one with people. It’s similar to the fear of negative emotions but it can stand alone, especially if they’ve tried a whole lot of things before and you have perceived themselves as failing.

Taking another thing on could be a challenge for them.

If you’re a weight loss coach, for example, and your ideal client says they trust you and they trust themselves, but what if it fails? What if they fail?

You need to call these things out in your content by saying something like “You might be wondering…”

7 – Fear of Success

Fear of success is fearing that something will actually work! This can be tricky, but people do have fear of success.

What happens if I do get that result? What might that mean? What if I lost my relationship due to the success? What if I lost my job?

This is where you call it out in your content. So in your Facebook Live videos, in your content and your blogs, you just say, “Some people ask; “What if it works, and then because of this success I have other problems?”

And then you overcome the questions in your content, by using a story of one of your clients who had the same fears.

One of their fears may have been increased responsibility. It might mean that they may have a team of people relying on them and that brought with it a fear of success.

I’m personally getting to that stage where I need to hire more people in my business, and there is a real fear of responsibility that I’m wrestling with. I don’t want to let people down, so I’m struggling with a bit of discomfort of going to the next level.

Subconscious marketing or neuro-marketing is where we really focus on the psychology of people who are consuming our content.

Giving them answers to their questions within your content helps build trust and overcome their objections.

Many times people don’t attract the right clients because their content is not connecting with them.

By content I mean anywhere we you show up online, such as Facebook live videos, social media posts, blog posts, emails, landing pages, in your Facebook group – and anywhere else you show up online and give value.

Content is not only King… content is the Kingdom. If you don’t get your content right you will not attract the right clients.

There are people who are out there that think that clients are just going to come to them by posting on social media, without understanding that content has to be written in a certain way to overcome all these objections.

Would you like to know exactly how to put these types of strategies into your content?

I have a workshop coming up THIS  weekend, it’s going to be a value-packed workshop where you’ll walk away with your content game-plan DONE!

‪Join us at the ‘Create Content That Connects’ Online Weekend Workshop THIS weekend Sat and Sun 6-7 June 9.30am – 3pm

‪

‪You can check it out here

Hope to see you there!

Kat

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7 Reasons Why Coaches Struggle To Sign Up Clients

The restrictions might be starting to lift, however, the financial crisis could keep going for some time.

I believe that in this time in history, it is more crucial than ever to be able to sell our services.

Selling is the #1 way that we keep our businesses afloat.

Selling helps people to improve their lives. It enables people to get more of what they want.

It’s an incredible feeling if you are offering something to someone who is going to benefit and get a result that transforms their life.

Yet so many business owners avoid learning sales skills.

I believe that more than ever, it’s a time for us to serve people and make offers to people who need help.

Selling is not about convincing someone or changing someone’s mind. It’s about having good conversations and seeing if you’re the right match to work together.

Sales is the #1 way to increase the numbers in your bank account, which is going to give you more freedom and more choice in your life.

And the best part is that we get to do it while doing what we love and helping people!

Here are seven reasons most coaches struggle to sell their services…

Number 1 – Asking too few questions

Effective sales conversations come from asking effective questions. Unfortunately people have negative associations with sales. Effective selling is about asking effective questions. I call them power questions.

These questions open up your potential clients’ minds ways to overcome their limiting beliefs about themselves, about you and about what you’re offering.

Effective questions, help the person to come to the realisation themselves that they actually need, what it is that you’re offering.

We need to spend at least 70% of the conversation asking questions. This is not interrogating, but asking elegant questions.

Some examples of effective sale questions are:

  • Tell me what your life would be like if you solved this problem?
  • Tell me what it’s costing you to not have this problem solved?
  • How is it affecting you?
  • Why is it important to you to solve this?
  • How is this affecting your family, relationships and health?
  • If you could change, what would be your ultimate result?
  • What have you tried in the past, and what has worked for you?
  • What hasn’t worked for you?

By asking these questions, you’re really digging in and getting to know the person to find out if they’re a match for you and to see if that person really wants to buy what you have to offer.

Number 2 – Talking Too Much or Too Little

If people who are selling to me talk too much, it makes me want to get out of the conversation. Talking too much can kill a sale for you.

No matter how good your product and offer is, talking too much doesn’t give the person you are talking to time to evaluate their own needs.

I understand that we often talk too much because we are nervous and to fill the air. There is value in allowing breathing space for people to contemplate their needs.

Now talking too little can also kill a sale. If a salesperson is not talking much, it makes me question what they are not telling me and why!

Both talking too much and too little lead back to the base of using a sales call as an opportunity to build a relationship with a potential client.

Remember that relationships go two ways. Asking the right questions and listening to needs helps you both work out if you are a match to work together.

Number 3 – Coming Across Too Strong

There’s a concept that I teach called strength and warmth. Strength and warmth is the spectrum of how we need both sides to be compelling and influential.

There’s a great book called Compelling People. In this book, they studied influential people and found they had a really good balance between strength and warmth.

There’s a sweet spot in the middle of being both strong and warm. By strong I mean you are quite direct and confident. You’re telling the person that you can absolutely help them, you’re giving them lots of assurance. People respect it and feel safe.

You tip over too much to one end of the spectrum and it can come across very forceful and almost rude. Most of us are actually scared of coming across like that. And so, for most of you, I imagine that you’re not strong enough.

Number 4 – Coming Across Too Soft

The fourth reason that coaches don’t sign up clients is coming across too soft. If you go too much on the warm end of the spectrum you can come across quite fluffy and apologetic. As soon as there’s any sign that a person might throw an objection out at you, you accept it, because you’re scared of rejection.

So instead of having an open authentic conversation, you end up just being really fluffy and avoiding it. We need to be strong and we need to kind to help people through their limiting beliefs and rejections.

Building good rapport with the person is crucial. You can say something like, ‘I can feel that this really seems like a problem for you.’ ‘What other options do you have if you don’t go here?’ Help people solve their problem rather than just running as soon as there’s any sign of any doubt.

So don’t be too strong, and forceful and blunt and direct and don’t be too soft. Find that nice sweet spot in the middle where you’re having a genuine human conversation with another person to see if you’re a match.

Number 5 – You’re Too Expensive

Many people try and go quite high in their charging before actually testing the market. They put their price too high before they’ve actually got the experience.

Make sure that if you’re not signing up any paid clients, you might need to drop your price to get some results and some great runs on the board. If you’ve not got testimonials to back your service, then you’re going to struggle to sell yourself at a higher price.

Build up your client base and build your testimonials. Testimonials of your clients’ transformations are essential for your business. This may mean doing some free coaching sessions in return for a testimonial and to build up your experience.

Number 6 – You’re Too Cheap

You’ve got to be in the middle- not too expensive and not too cheap. If you haven’t had any paid clients yet, you might give a discount for the first three clients in return for a testimonial.

If you’ve been coaching for ages and you’ve got clients already, then this is different, but when you’re starting out, it’s really important that you get results and transformations.  Then you can do things like webinars because you can only to webinars if you’ve had results for people.

If you feel that you’re a bit resentful when you tell people your price and if you feel like you’ve dropped the price because you are desperate for sales, then you may well need to increase your price.

People won’t value you if you’ve priced your service too cheaply.  The biggest investment I’ve made into my business was a $17,000 business course.  Because I had invested, I turned up and did the work.

If you are too cheap, people will just think that you’re not good, so please don’t undersell yourself!

Number 7 – Having Too Little Confidence

When we gain confidence to charge what we’re worth, we can have great conversations with people and we can confidently communicate our value.

When we truly know that we’re providing great value to someone and getting them results, it helps build our confidence. I’m working with clients, every single day. Last week I had 18 clients and this week I’ve worked with 27 clients and I’m getting them results.

I’m giving people value and helping them and this gives me a lot of confidence. So you’ve got to be good at what you do and you’ve got to be able to communicate what you do well and with confidence.

To gain confidence you need to do lots of practice sessions. I’ve literally given hundreds of free coaching sessions to people and it built up my practice and it also built my confidence in selling and making offers.

The next thing with confidence is making sure that you’re speaking to the right person. It’s very hard to sell to someone who genuinely doesn’t need what you’ve got. I try and prequalify people beforehand through a questionnaire.

Only work with committed people because your reputation is valuable. Your reputation and brand is more important than money.

Make sure that you’re only having sales conversations with people who you know you can definitely get a transformation and results for. That is going to build your confidence.

If you want to know the best way to sell during these current times, I recently ran a FREE 90-minute masterclass called ‘Selling Equals Service’

It was a powerful session and I received lots of great feedback afterwards.

I talked through 5 keys to effective selling and shared a 6-step VALUES based selling framework that I personally use and share with my clients.

In case you missed it, I’ve created a replay which is now available for the next 48 hours. ?

? Grab Your Free Access Here

P.S. The content is a game-changer if you want to sign up your ideal paying clients, so don’t procrastinate – take action and watch it today before it comes down!

Enjoy!

Kat

 

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How To Overcome Your Own Objections To Selling

This week I’ve been having lots of conversations with people about sales and the beliefs people have about selling.

With the current economic climate, the topic of whether people should be selling, discounting or holding back and retreating is in a lot of people’s minds.

People are wondering “Is it appropriate to sell during these times?”

There are a host of limiting beliefs coming to the surface during this coronavirus season.

This is highlighting the difference between people who truly believe they have something valuable to offer

I don’t know your unique business situation, but I wanted to offer some ways of thinking about it to help you out.

If you’re a business owner and your service genuinely helps and serves people and improves their life, sales is key.

Sales is the ONE THING that will improve your financial position and give you more of what you love.

Sales are the key to bringing you freedom in your business and in your life.

Marketing, copywriting and presenting are all things we need to do well, but ultimately if we can’t get people to put money into our bank accounts, we will never be truly free. We will always be working for someone else.

I’m talking to all leaders, coaches, consultants, educators, thought leaders and subject matter experts. If you are a heart-based business owner, this is for you.

I want to ask you a question: what comes to your mind when I say the words ‘selling is…’? What’s literally the first things that come to mind?

If you hold the belief that selling is in any way negative, such as scary of difficult, that’s going to affect your ability to sell. If you feel like sales is hard, why would you do it?  You’ll avoid it at all costs. And then your business will suffer.

Your very first reaction to the words ‘selling is’ and the definition you give the word ‘sales’ is going to determine your success in business.

The number one asset that you have when you’re selling is confidence. If you’re not confident in how your product or service will help someone, no one will buy from you.

There IS a way of selling, that is enjoyable for BOTH parties; it’s authentic and exciting. It gives both parties more of what they want. But first, you need to sell YOURSELF on selling.

Here are 5 ways to overcome your own objections to selling:

1 – Write Down all the Beliefs you Have About Selling

Be honest about your current beliefs around sales and write them down. Do you hold beliefs that sales are difficult? Do sales equate to fear of rejection for you?

Two of the most important needs that we have as human beings is to belong and the other need is to be accepted and not rejected. The truth is that in doing business, you will meet people who don’t like you or what your business stands for.

If you’re not willing to be hated by at least one person, then you’re not cut-out for business.

If you are trying to be all things to all people and avoid rejection, you won’t take risks and being in business takes being willing to take risks. I challenge you, be honest with yourself about your core beliefs around sales. The first step to change is being honest about where you are truly at.

2 – Identify Limiting Beliefs and Objections to Sales

Number 2 is to write down any limiting beliefs or objections you have about sales. Some of these would have come into your list in Number 1.

Do you believe selling is hard or awkward? Or do you have definitions of sales that are positive and empowering? What objections to selling and limiting beliefs around sales do you have?

Now circle all the beliefs that are empowering and cross out any beliefs that disempower and limit you.

Consider reframing these beliefs. Where you feel selling is scary, write down what you want to believe that is empowering, like selling is exciting. Write down what the opposite is of the negative and limiting belief.

If you want to start seeing sales as enjoyable, write down all the reasons why selling is fun and exciting. It means you are helping people and you are also making money from helping people.

3 – Sell Yourself on Selling

Sell yourself on all the reasons that selling is a positive and not a negative. Selling is caring for others and helping people which brings meaning to sales.

The number one thing that you can do to increase your financial position is to get brilliant at sales. Where you’re at right now is directly in proportion to your ability to sell.

There’s many other skills we need in business such as copywriting, marketing and presenting skills, but selling is the one thing that directly brings money into your bank account.

If you don’t have money in your bank account it’s because of your mindset around selling and it’s because of your mindset around your worth and your value. If you truly value yourself and what you do then why wouldn’t you sell it?

This is why I love selling because I genuinely help people improve their lives every single day. I coach and encourage people and they improve their lives. This is the power of what I offer, so I will never stop selling because it helps people change their lives completely. It’s a win-win.

We’ve been programmed to believe that selling is a bad thing and we need to break that conditioning, People assume selling is about greed and money-grabbing.  If you’re offering something to someone who doesn’t need it, then you’re not really selling, you’re manipulating.

When you overcome your fear of rejection in sales, it can become fun. Reframe your beliefs around selling to understand that you are enhancing people’s lives. The money follows when you really want to help people.

4 – Write Down Why Selling Will Give You More of What You Want

You’re improving someone’s life by selling them your product or service. You’re helping others and in return, you are also helped. You are going to get so much satisfaction and joy if you can sell during a difficult period.

The financial crisis has not peaked yet. In fact, maybe in five or six months time, the government will take away its help and banks will stop putting pauses on loans. This is the time when there is government and bank assistance so it’s a great time to sell.

Think of all the people that you can help through the lows. There is so much opportunity for freedom at this time. And sales gives you the freedom to enjoy in life what you want to enjoy.

If I didn’t know how to sell I wouldn’t have freedom.  I wouldn’t be able to work full time in my business and be an entrepreneur.

Without sales, I’d be stuck in a job that I didn’t enjoy. I’ve been there and I hated life. I was miserable, depressed, moody and tired all the time. I don’t want to go back there.

I made friends with sales and I’m so glad I did as it keeps me living my purpose.

One of the best things you can do for yourself and for your business is to make selling your friend.

 5 – Give Your Brain Evidence That Sales is Enjoyable

Prove to your brain that selling is enjoyable. Rather than just saying affirmations and trying to believe them, prove it by taking action.

People are always asking me how to find clients. I tell them that their clients are already out there, on their  laptop or on the phone. You need to reach out and tell them that you can help them. You need to risk rejection and risk someone saying no.

Just ask questions.

For example “Are you still looking for help with growing your business or with improving your home or losing weight?”

Ask people how they are going during this time and if they need help with whatever it is you do.

You can offer a free session, and just use it to give back to people.  About 90% of the sales conversations I have with people is them talking to me and me listening, coaching and helping them.

I don’t even think of these conversations as sales conversations, as I genuinely know I can help people.

It’s amazing the number of business owners that I talked to who are struggling to make money and they can’t afford to pay for Facebook ads. This is most likely because they are not having enough sales conversations.

 

If you want to know the best way to sell during these current times, I recently ran a FREE 90-minute masterclass called ‘Selling Equals Service’

It was a powerful session and I received lots of great feedback afterwards.

I talked through 5 keys to effective selling and shared a 6-step VALUES based selling framework that I personally use and share with my clients.

In case you missed it, I’ve created a replay which is now available for the next 48 hours. ?

? Grab Your Free Access Here

P.S. The content is a game-changer if you want to sign up your ideal paying clients, so don’t procrastinate – take action and watch it today before it comes down!

Enjoy!

Kat

 

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