Ep112 Transcript: 4 Ways to Reframe Your Thoughts About Selling – Quick Fix Friday

Are you afraid of selling in your business? Is your fear of selling holding your business back? Do you worry that you’re going to appear sleazy if you try and sell?

Well, in today’s episode of Quick Fix Friday, I’m going to give you four ways to reframe your thoughts about selling.

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In episode 110, I talked to Jill Konrath, who is one of the world’s experts on sales. She has many bestselling books about selling, including Snap Selling, Agile Selling, Selling to Big Companies and more. We’ll link to those in the show notes and she has since moved on to launching something new.

She started her selling expertise when she was in her fifties, now is launching. A new project in her seventies, which is amazing. But I thought I would spend some time on this Quick Fix Friday talking about ways to reframe your thinking about selling. Because I have struggled with this for so long as I have started my own business 14 years ago and was worried about selling and kind of found that that was actually holding me back and it’s still a work in progress, but I wanted to share some of the things that have helped me reframe my thoughts. I’ve read a lot of different books on this and taken courses, taken programs, and I understand how difficult it can be.

So one of the things that was a big aha for me was realizing that selling is actually serving. We’re actually helping our potential customers do something new. We’re serving them with our product or service that we are offering them. It is something that they need, that they want, and you are just there to match up that connection and make sure that that’s going to help them get where they want.

And that’s actually point number two is really understanding that you are only there to help your client get what they want. It is a way to match that up and get them from where they are stuck to where they need to be. So you’re really kind of helping them in a profound way, and they’re going to be grateful for your product or service as long as it’s the right fit for them.

You’re not there to push something on them. You’re not there to make sure they get closed and cram that down their throat. You are there to help them.

Another way to reframe your thoughts is that sales is really just a conversation. You are asking them more questions and finding out what their needs are and really uncovering that to make sure what you have is the right fit. And that’s something I’ve really done in my sales conversations is say upfront, “Hey, I don’t know. If what I have is the right fit for you, but we’re going to explore this together and find out.” And just have a conversation.

In Daniel Pink’s book, selling is human. That’s what it is. It’s just a conversation between humans. We are uncovering needs and also realizing that we are selling all the time. We might be selling in just little conversations with our family about what they want to eat tonight. We might be trying to sell a nap to a toddler.

We are human beings that are oftentimes trying to persuade someone else to do something that will benefit both of us, especially the nap for toddlers. Oh my God, moms benefit so much from that.

The fourth point that I think has really helped me was, from Zig Ziglar’s training that I took, and it really is about selling is a transfer of enthusiasm. We are enthusiastic in our product. We believe in it, we’re excited about it, And our job is to get our perspective client enthused about that solution for them as well. That’s what’s going to help them make that buying decision. And if you believe in your product, you know it works, then you’re going to easily be able to transfer that enthusiasm over to them.

I totally get that selling can be a challenge. I’ve struggled with it a long time. There’s tons of great books out there that I’ve read. I’m going to share some links in the show notes here of books that I’ve found particularly helpful as well as Jill’s books. So get out there, get your ideas out there, and happy selling.

Hope that was helpful, and make sure you grab the free guide Top Tools for Late Starters on the website@latestartersclub.com and let’s turn dreaming into doing.