If Selling Is Hard For You…

Then you need a paradigm shift.
Very few of us like wearing the salesman hat. It conjures up all kinds of ideas about slimey tactics, manipulation and other things that people with consciences want no part of. Yet we still have to run our businesses.

If your present view of sales and marketing is that it’s a necessary evil, you’re in danger of self-sabotage when it comes to promoting yourself and your product.

Like most things, there’s a ditch on either side of the road. There’s also a way to sell, without being sleezy or annoying, and without blackening your soul.

It all starts here. You have to sell something you truly believe in, and know that it’s in people’s best interest to buy from you. You can’t only be in it for the money.

If you don’t 100% believe in what you’re doing, you shouldn’t go any further in business until you address this issue. Is it your internal struggle, or do you need to sell something else? Do you need to improve or change your product, or change your belief?

If you’re dealing with self-doubt and limiting beliefs, despite evidence to the contrary that your product is worthy, and you haven’t written out a list of benefits which should form your sales copy, I urge you to do that. It will help you get in touch with the value you give people. You should also look at my post on Imposter Syndrome.

The other side of this is believing so much that you give it away because you know how good it is and you just want to see people benefit.

But if you really want to help, you need to charge, because people rarely value what they haven’t paid for. Charging also helps you take your offer to a larger audience, which benefits more people. I only do free when I hear Papa say so.

All that said, giving away something small for free is a great way to introduce someone to your brand.
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Shift your mindset in such a way that you consider your job as a salesman to be helping people to identify what they want or need and how you can help them get there. Hopefully that will be through your product, and if not, steer them to the right thing for them. Listen and be helpful first. 

I have a questionnaire on my flower essence site which is basically a free consultation. It helps me filter out those who are really looking for essential oils (common mistake) and those who really want a drug-like effect. If they pass that, I can send them to my appropriate product. Otherwise, I refer them elsewhere.

Like service above, you might need to spend some time educating people on why what you have helps. Many times they don’t know how to recognize the source of their problem, let alone what they can do about it. Selling via education will be perceived as you doing them a favor if you do this right. Blogs, books, free ecourses, informative emails and social media posts are all examples of this.
We’ve all seen the funny commercials and have read entertaining sales copy. If you are a natural entertainer, let that be one of your sales method.
I run a flower essence business. Do I believe everyone should use them? Of course! But I market to very specific types of people, because I know who is interested and willing to work on their emotional issues. I spend my time and marketing budget there and I know that I will never have to do a hard sell. It’s not my job to convince anybody to be my customer. My job is to help the ones who are actively looking for the solution that I provide. Knowing your audience will save you a ton of frustration.

If you shift your perception of sales away from the idea of trying to convince people to buy from you, to helping as many people as you can, you’ll feel better about the process.

“Selling is not something you do to someone, it’s something you do for someone.” -Zig Ziglar

Let any of the above three; serving, educating or entertaining, be a part of every interaction a prospect has with you, and you can’t go wrong. They will love being marketed to by you.

Look at how others are successfully selling to you. Why did you buy? What makes you like the way they do business? How can you emulate that in your own business?
We go over email marketing, advertising, finding your niche and the 5 stages of marketing in the Dream Ventures class. Make sure you’re on the mailing list for the next class opening.