How to Master the Art of Selling

Karen retired from her “real” job thinking it was finally time to do what she really wanted to do. She was 57 and was an engineer for many years, but she wanted the freedom to follow her passion. She retired early and decided to become a life coach.

After completing a training program she was ready to go! However, only a trickle of clients hired her and she discovered what many small business owners have learned; you likely spend more time marketing than everything else put together.

In marketing there’s an order and a system to the process and when you follow the system correctly, it works and it brings you more clients. Many women, like Karen, who have worked for someone else their whole life, don’t have a clue about selling, and Karen, like many women, assumed that being a life coach had nothing to do with sales.
In truth, all business has to do with sales. What distinguishes a business from a hobby is the intention of having positive cash flow and this means sales.

There are actually seven steps to the marketing process and the sixth part has to do with sales. If you do the first parts well, than the sales part is easy.

First, you need to know your potential client’s need or problem, build empathy, offer a free sample, and at some point people need to be invited to work with you and get more involved. However, there are three issues that can sabotage this part of the process. They are all caused from focusing on yourself and your issues, rather than on your potential client.

One of the biggest mistakes small business owners make is trying to sell to people before building a relationship and before they have shown an interest. If you love your products and you know your service is amazing, you want to tell people and pass on your excitement. However, if you do that part too soon, you lose people because you haven’t developed a relationship, listened to them and genuinely learned who they are and what they care about.

It’s very important to this part first, as then your potential client will feel that connection with you and be ready for the next step. Sales only feels like sales when you are jumping ahead. When this happens you feel out of sync. Much of the sales process is about your empowerment and your attitude. What are the three issues that affect empowerment and attitude at this stage?

1. Your unresolved money issues. Fear or discomfort around asking for money is a big issue with many solo business owners, especially women. The biggest money issues are around your own self-worth.

2. Pushi-itis. Feeling so passionate about your offerings that you want to tell everyone what you do and how great it is, but if you tell everyone too much it can feel like a sales pitch rather than relationship building. In this case, people feel pushed and it makes them uncomfortable and they end up wanting to get far away from you.

3. Fear. You are so worried about people thinking you are pushy that you hold back, disappear and miss the cues that people want to connect with you and move to the next step of the pipeline.

How comfortable are you helping people to make the decision to work with you? Do you tend more toward error number one, two or three and why? What is one thing you can do to guide people in a way that supports them and their process? Here are a few ideas.

• Overcome your money issues. Do whatever it takes to delve inside and develop a more positive relationship with money.
• Value yourself and what you offer. Focus on your self-worth and acknowledge your skill and expertise.
• Focus on your clients needs and the benefits they want. Keep your focus on your clients all the time. Listen and listen more. Remember it is not about you.
• Get help from someone who is not part of your business. You need to be able to speak freely about your fears and not worry about being judged.
• Develop a strong marketing plan that will help you to stay focused on the whole process.

Kaya Singer
Awakening Business Solutions
Free 7 Step Marketing Circle