Matt was on point with a potential client. He knew his facts and was able to clearly and concisely articulate to his prospect all of the benefits associated with purchasing the fitness membership he was selling to her. In order to achieve his sales goal and make a bonus that month, he had to make this one last sale. He was determined and confident, but regardless of his self-assurance, could not close the prospect and missed the sale and his bonus that month.
Mary wanted her daughter to follow her rules and respect curfew, however, her youngest daughter wanted to break the rule in order to hang out with her friends most Friday nights. As a single mother of three kids, she couldn’t understand why her youngest child had to rebel, unlike her older siblings. Each and every time she told her daughter to “be like her older brothers and follow the rules”, the more rebellious and out-spoken the daughter became with her.
Rose asked her boss for a raise, and he responded with questioning as to why she feels she is entitled to a raise at this time. She didn’t understand why he was asking her to explain herself or to remind him of her outstanding performance. She felt frustrated by his line of questioning and dropped the conversation as she knew she was terrible at self-promotion. She changed the subject and so did her boss.
These examples are all connected to sales. Direct-selling to a client, getting your teenaged daughter home on time, or asking your boss for a raise are all examples of how selling is a part of all of our lives. Whether you have the words ‘salesperson’ on your business card or not, whether you are exchanging money or not, you are selling. Convincing a friend to go to a movie, making your kid eat their vegetables, convincing your family of your first choice for a holiday destination or selling your services as a solopreneur, are all considered part of the big “S” word that so many are afraid of.
In THINK Yourself® A RELATIONSHIPS PRO, co-author Maureen Hagan and I offer you specific sales techniques to to help you stand up for yourself and transform your life with specific sales skills.
You may feel that you are absolutely qualified to do what you do, and you love serving your clients. However, you hate having to sell yourself. And as far as a career in sales, that is totally for others. Maybe you have an unconscious belief that, no matter how amazing you are at your business and how motivated you might be as an entrepreneur or by the appealing attributes of a career in sales, you are just not able to sell. In the back of your mind, selling is being pushy and that is just not who you are. Salespeople are bad, right?
When you sell, you hate being perceived as pushy. You are consistently not charging enough for your products or services. You feel unauthentic because your sales efforts are geared towards bringing you a paycheque instead of serving your client’s needs. You are trying to get your clients’ attention and somehow, you find it hard to be recognized through their busy agenda. You feel alone, being your own cheerleading team. You find it hard to faithfully execute the professional Sales Mastery. You are constantly prioritizing other tasks above your sales efforts because of all the other distractions of a solopreneur. You take it personally and hate hearing a NO which in time, makes you unwilling to ask for the business.
If you can relate to any of these, you may want to re-address some limiting beliefs and rephrase them, as you learned in my previous post THREE STEPS TO GET RID OF A LIMITING BELIEF. The first step is to change the limiting beliefs you may have surrounding sales. In Rose’s example above, she gave up on a raise opportunity as she was afraid of having to sell herself. This may happen to you too. The words: “Never mind” may be too quick to come out of your mouth when it comes to selling or asking for what you want.
Next week, I will talk about how shifting your limiting beliefs around sales will help you stand up for yourself and get what you deserve!