by GSCA Member, Jackie Simmons
(See Chapter 1 here and Chapter 2)
Now that you’ve addressed starting and building relationships, Let’s talk about sales.
Wouldn’t you agree that to be in business making sales is required?
Did you know that the most important sale you’ll ever make is the one you’ve already made?
AND if you did it right, you’ll never have to sell anyone anything ever again?
The challenge: most people, me included, don’t know what we’re selling or even that we’re selling.
For instance: on a cold, damp February evening in Columbia MD, I drove to the first night of a new college course. Usually this was an exciting time for me: new class, new classmates, new professor; only this particular evening, my mood was as gray and dreary as the weather.
With my new textbook beside me on the passenger seat I drove into the campus. I parked and walked past the administrative offices into the classroom. The classroom set up was the standard U facing the front of the room and I was early enough to get a seat at the bottom of the U.
Next to me settled a younger, 30-something energized newcomer to the college. Chatty and concerned that she had just registered that morning and didn’t have the textbook yet.
I turned to face her more directly and offered her mine.
A little bewildered, she thanked me and accepted my hastily scrawled address promising to mail me a check.
I quickly gathered my things and walked out of the classroom straight to the registrar’s office where I withdrew as a student.
That was over 20 years ago and I never went back.
The sale?
Not the textbook. The sale was on trusting my gut that said I was studying for a career I didn’t want.
The sale was me claiming my right to the freedom of being an entrepreneur instead.
What are you selling yourself on?
Have you sold yourself on being an entrepreneur, a healer, a coach, a change-maker? Are you all in on that purchase?
Here’s the most important question you’ll ever ask a client, or yourself.
“What do you need to believe in order to be totally sold on your own success?”
When I posed that question in a workshop, the answers were startling.
The idea that the most important sale you’ll ever make is selling yourself on the idea of being successful really touched a nerve.
Then I asked: What are you really selling yourself on?
The answers were disheartening. So many gifted, even brilliant coaches and healers are unintentionally, and even unconsciously selling yourselves on waiting, procrastinating, holding back your BEST stuff, and even denying yourselves a big definite dream.
AND I get it!
The next chapter of the Non-Salesy Sales Guide is completely devoted to exposing and busting mythologies regarding sales, marketing, and how much money your offers, your time, and your experience are really worth.
There’s a reason I said “experience” not “expertise”. Some days I’m still not sure that I have marketable expertise. What I do have, and what I know you have, is TONS of experience in what works and what DOESN’T.
For me what doesn’t work is accepting the narrative that “the economy is bad” or “no one is investing in personal development”.
What does work for me is taming the biggest elephant in the room.
An “elephant in the room” is my way of describing the voice of the inner critic, the collection of limiting beliefs that holds us back from speaking the truth about the positive impact we have in the world.
Just for today, imagine how it feels to be fully alive, engaged, making a difference, and making double or even triple the income you have now, all while loving what you do.
Just for today, give yourself permission to believe the world is ready to receive what you’re ready to give.
