Selling with confidence

Transcript

Sales are the lifeblood of business, but often the fear of rejection, coming across as pushy, steps in the way of your capacity to sell. Today I want to share my framework, to sell to your customers easily and effortlessly.

You’re listening to the Clare Wood podcast, where we talk all things business, finance, marketing, and mindset for entrepreneurs, sharing practical tips, and actionable advice to help you take your business to the next level. Introducing your host: me! I’m Clare Wood, I’m a numbers geek, a travel lover, and a reality tv addict, and I’m here to empower you to create an extraordinary business and an amazing life, because I believe you don’t have to choose between the two. Now let’s dive right in to today’s episode.

Mastering your mindset around sales

The first and most important thing when it comes to sales is mastering your mindset around sales. How do you feel about selling? What words come up? Do you think that selling is sleazy or pushy? What I’d love for you to do is write down every belief you have around sales. Grab a piece of paper, and write them all down. You might think people who sell are pushy, people won’t like me if I try to sell to them. Every belief you have around sales, pop them down on a piece of paper. Once you’ve gone through and put them down, I want you to go back and reframe each of those different beliefs. We will literally override your old belief and create a new one.

For example, you may have written, if I sell to someone, they will think I’m pushy. You can reframe that with your new belief and write something like, when I sell my services to someone I am helping them. The hardest part of the sales process is mastering your mindset around it. How do you show up? Selling with confidence isn’t about feeling 100% confident, it’s about showing up with self-belief and sincerity and conviction. When you have an unwavering belief in yourself, and know your product or service delivers, this is evident. If you are feeling wobbles, then I believe it in fake it until you make it. Sometimes confidence is about presenting confidence.

How to feel confident when selling

So how do you make yourself feel confident? It’s about putting things in place that make you feel that way. For me, when my hair is blow-dried, and I have a nice outfit on, I feel really fantastic about myself, and feel I show up in a totally different way. For you it might be different. Figure out what you need to do, physically, to make yourself feel more confident before going into one of these conversations. One of those things might be doing some inner work, perhaps you could do a meditation, say some mantras, do some journaling, whatever you need to do to show up in a confident state. Again, it doesn’t mean you need to feel 100% confident, because no one does all the time, it’s just about showing up in the best way you can, so you are selling from a place of sincerity, and not from a place of fakeness.

One of the suggestions I have in this space is that you don’t think these conversations as a big sales pitch, because that will make you feel more nervous. Think of them as having a chat to a potential new client to see if they are a good fit. Essentially, that is all it is. We don’t need to put pressure on it, because that will only increase your nervousness.

The biggest mistake business owners make when selling

The biggest mistake I see business owners make when trying to get new customers, is not getting their potential clients on a call. This isn’t just about coaching, it’s about any service, whether that is Facebook Ads, Copy writing, Web development etc, you want to get people on the phone and not just email through a quote.

The reason this is so important is, you can read the person you are talking to, understand what is going on for them, and you can make sure you are a the right fit for them. When you are having this conversation, it’s as much about seeing if you are a good fit for them, as they are a good fit for you. You don’t want to be stuck with someone, that will be a pain in the ass. Get them on a call to feel them out.

When you are actually in the call, provide a quote on the spot in the initial call, is ideal. Because they are in a state to have that conversation with you. The more opportunity to go away and think about it the more they will question everything. So if you can give them that solution and you agree you are both a good fit, then give them that price, then that is the best way to finish a sales call. If you can’t give them that price on the spot, then line up when you are going to have the next conversation with them. For example, on the call say “Great, I will go and put together a quote for you, when can we have another conversation to discuss the quote.” Never email a quote.

Should you display your prices on your website

One this note, one question I get asked a lot is… should you have your prices on your website? This depends, but personally, if I don’t have a guide to someone’s costs, I won’t get on a call to them. There are going to be some businesses that are way outside your budget or price range, and there is no point getting those clients onto a call, because they will never work with you, if it is going to be outside their price range. Equally though, you don’t have to have every single price broken down on your website, sometimes an indication or price range or price from, is good, otherwise you could find yourself on lots of time-wasting phone calls.

The other thing about having a price guide on your website, is that it makes the call more about tightening up the sale and closing it. One some level they have accepted their price range is reasonable to them.

How to structure a sales call

The key here is to ask questions and listen. I love to open with a question and identify what the problem is. For example, a web developer could ask “Why don’t you like your current website?” Try and get as much information about their problem as you can. Keep asking questions around their problem. “what would having a new website mean to their business” Take note of words used in their response. Some people might talk about sales, others may talk about being proud of their website. When you talk about the next step, which is how you can help, make sure you use those same words and address what their issues are. If someone wants a beautiful website, and you keep talking about driving sales, then they aren’t going to connect with your sale and answers. Once you’ve gathered as much info as your can. Ask “Would you like me to share how I can help?” That gives you permission to share, and allows them to commit a little further to working with you. You can then share what you do and how you can help them, and focus on their problem and how you can help. Don’t think of this step as the pitch or sales process. You are offering a solution to their problem. Less is more here. Don’t try and over explain or justify it, present at a high level, your solution and price. Don’t get nervous when sharing your price, because people will pick up on it. Once you’ve mentioned the price, then ask “How does that sound?” What you are doing here, rather than asking for a straight yes or no answer, you are opening up to see if they have any objections. They might say “It sounds great but a little outside my budget” or “I’m not sure the timing will work for me” That gives you an indication on concerns they might have and allows you to address those concerns right there on the spot. If they say it sounds great, say great, looking forward to working with you. Send through a copy of the contract and invoice as soon as possible. Don’t delay on this. You want them to commit to work with you, and the longer they have to wait the less excited they will be. If they do have objections, address them on the call, or if they aren’t convinced, you can offer to contact them at a later time and if they are keen to do that, lock in a time. If after addressing their concerns, they still say no, then I believe in just saying, no problems and leave it as that. Don’t beg. Don’t lower your prices. Don’t get cranky or sulky. I’ve had people do that when I’ve said the timing wasn’t right, and let me tell you, that won’t work in your favour down the track. Continue to smile and offer the opportunity to work with them in the future. Sometimes a no, is simply a not yet. I’ve definitely had people come back to me at a later stage and work with me. Your aligned clients will come to you when the timing is right.

What is a sales call ‘warm-up’ and why it helps

One more thing I have to say about sales, is the more warming up you do before the call, the easier and less effort a sales call is. For example, because of this podcast, my social following and testimonials, by the time someone gets on a call with me, they are usually sold. I would say I sign up about 95% of discovery calls I have and it’s usually just a quick chat to lock it in. Whereas when I was first coaching, these were drawn out, because I had to gain trust, and demonstrate that I could deliver. So the best way to make the sales process easy, is to do the hard work in your overall marketing process. If you don’t have a marketing strategy in place, or yours isn’t working, then this is something I teach inside my membership, the Makers.  

Remember, there is nothing sleazy about selling, in fact, not selling is depriving people of your help. I much prefer to use the word offer, rather than the word sell. You are simply sharing how you can help, and they can choose whether to accept it or not.

To sum up, when going through a sales process:

• The most important part is doing the mindset work first.
• Make sure that you show up in a confident state.
• Seek to understand the problem and offer solution.
• Overcome objections and finalise the sale or walk away if it’s not the right fit.

Sales are an essential part of business and this process can be enjoyable when you show up from a place of integrity and service.

Thank you so much for joining me today, if you enjoyed this episode, please make sure you subscribe to receive future episodes, and I’d be so grateful for a review on apple podcast! If you’d like a copy of the show notes or any of the links mentioned today, please jump over to clarewood.com.au/podcast and remember that Clare is spelled CLARE, have a wonderful week and look forward to chatting to you again soon!