| Do you do your best to provide value to prospective | | | | This first key is the most important. If it is missing, you |
| customers but back away from selling to them? Use | | | | will run out of steam before you even begin the sales |
| these selling tips to explore your attitude to selling and | | | | process. |
| make your business and your relationships with your | | | | Remember the archetype of the white-shoed car |
| customers healthier. | | | | salesman*? It runs deep, and unless you consciously |
| LOOK MA, NO WHITE SHOES! | | | | establish the service foundation for selling every time |
| The used car salesmen in white shoes and belt with a | | | | you write copy or tell someone about your work, you |
| loud plaid jacket has become an archetype of selling. | | | | risk getting blind-sided by shame. And guess what? As |
| As a result, you may -- like me -- have tended to keep | | | | soon as shame starts to burble up in you, your |
| sales in the closet, depending on the admiration of your | | | | customers pick up on it. Yuck! |
| network and the kindness of strangers to bring in | | | | Walk a mile in their shoes. What do your "just-right" |
| revenue. | | | | customers need to know in order to make a decision? |
| Do you do your best to provide value without asking | | | | What could get in the way? What are the stakes if |
| for reciprocity? Do you write newsletters, blog, offer | | | | they fail to act? |
| complimentary introductory session or other benefits to | | | | How many couples would not be together today if |
| prospective clients but back away from selling to | | | | one partner hadn't been willing to hang in there when |
| them? | | | | the other hesitated? If the course of true love doesn't |
| How thoughtful. How generous. How unhealthy. | | | | run smooth, why would the course of deciding to buy |
| Yes, unhealthy. Because when you don't invite your | | | | something that's a good fit? |
| customers to reciprocate, when you don't issue clear, | | | | When you stand in your just-right customer's shoes for |
| open, and regular invitations to buy, you consign your | | | | a while, you'll see what steppingstones they might |
| business to a kind of financial anorexia. | | | | need in order to buy something that will truly serve |
| The person suffering from anorexia has a distorted | | | | them. |
| body image, and can languish and even die from | | | | Are those steppingstones for everyone? Of course |
| starvation, while being convinced that they are fat. | | | | not. Is that a problem? No, and to find out why not, |
| What's more, they are convinced that being fat is a | | | | keep reading. |
| fate worse than death (literally). | | | | Dance with no as well as yes. When you are clear |
| FINANCIAL ANOREXIA | | | | about who you are serving and how, open your heart |
| Do you have a distorted image of what it would mean | | | | even wider so that people who don't need what you |
| to profit from serving others? Would it be okay with | | | | offer or who are not ready to buy, are free to decline. |
| you if people saw your business thriving? Or do you | | | | Rather than arming yourself against someone's |
| cling to the notion that somehow starvation is a more | | | | decision not to buy, open yourself to it. |
| artistic or enlightened path? Heaven forfend that your | | | | Imagine a prospective client or customer considering |
| clients or customers would think you are in business | | | | and then deciding against your offer. Watch them |
| for the money! | | | | closely in your mind's eye without pretending to know |
| And of course, you aren't in business for the money | | | | what they are thinking. Just watch. |
| any more than a healthy adult lives to eat. Yet, your | | | | When you let go of what you think that they think |
| business needs money just as certainly as you need | | | | about you, what do you see? Do you notice that they |
| food, and the more up front, clear, and effective you | | | | are simply taking care of themselves as best they |
| are at selling, the healthier your business and your | | | | know how? Good. Now notice how your heart eases |
| relationships with your customers. | | | | as you unhook your self-esteem from their choices. |
| Sounds good in principle, but how do you sell | | | | This heart's ease completes the circuit from intention |
| effectively without pressuring your customers and | | | | to serve to decision to sell to blessing all of your |
| alienating your audience? Keep reading. | | | | prospects whether or not they decide to buy. Selling |
| SELLING TO SERVE | | | | becomes a conversation in which you advocate for |
| Your customers and clients -- like you -- have a lot | | | | those folks who want and can benefit from your work |
| more on their minds than whether or not your work | | | | so that they can notice, consider, and decide. |
| can help them. They could be crying out for what you | | | | *By the way, I love my car salesman, DJ Dougherty at |
| offer, but distracted by slings and arrows of everyday | | | | Peninsula Subaru here on the Kitsap Peninsula. Why? |
| fortune: leaky plumbing, aging parents, boomerang kids | | | | Because he served me in every step of the sales |
| -- the list goes on and on. | | | | process. Two and a half years after buying "Blanche" |
| In order to help them, you'll need to open your mind to | | | | from him, I still tell everyone I know about how happy I |
| selling. How do you keep selling from co-opting your | | | | am with my car and with the process of buying it. |
| values and your vision? The answer is to build service | | | | How would it be if your customers told their friends |
| into sales and vice versa. | | | | about you because they loved the way you sold to |
| TIPS FOR SELLING THAT SERVES | | | | them? |
| Begin with the end in mind. Stephen Covey had this | | | | * * * |
| one exactly right. (If you haven't read his classic 7 | | | | Read more selling tips and articles on price setting on |
| Habits of Highly Effective People, it's well worth your | | | | Molly Gordon's website and cast a fresh eye at your |
| time.) Before you sell anything to anyone, remember | | | | pricing strategies. |
| why you are going to do it. | | | | |