10 Myths You've Been Told About Selling That Are Hurting Your Business and Your Confidence ft. My Sales Coach
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What if you could double your income with a blend of grit and tenacity? Join us as we welcome back BrandWell’s sales coach and The Branding Business School educator, Gwen Tinsley, to the podcast! Gwen shares her compelling story of transitioning careers, her deep-rooted friendship with Victoria and how she helped her find confidence in selling. Together, they discuss strategies for dealing with difficult clients, maintaining pricing integrity, and building confidence in closing sales. This episode is packed with 10 myths that you’ve been told about selling and actionable insights on what to do instead that promise to elevate your entrepreneurial journey.
Discover how tapping into emotions can significantly influence purchasing decisions and create authentic human-to-human connections. The conversation emphasizes the importance of a thorough client discovery process and the necessity of protecting one's emotional well-being by carefully selecting clients. Gwen and Victoria discuss the benefits of an outcome-based approach, aiming to foster a positive and invigorating business environment.
Challenging common myths around selling in female entrepreneurship, this episode debunks misconceptions that could be holding you back. From the false notion that only extroverts can succeed in sales to the detrimental practice of discounting prices, Gwen and Victoria share valuable lessons on maintaining pricing integrity and niching down to attract the right clients. They also cover the importance of consistent follow-ups and structured communication in sales. Tune in to learn how expert sales coaching can be transformative, helping you handle difficult clients, balance work and life, and ultimately grow your business with confidence.
Welcome back to the podcast, Gwen! [02:00]
The last time Gwen was on the podcast was three years ago, back in 2021, which was actually the episode that sparked the idea of having Gwen become BrandWell’s sales coach. Victoria had first met Gwen in 2016 when they worked together for a marketing agency. Gwen was the Sales Director and Victoria was the Director of Websites and Online Marketing. They bonded over being two young females on an executive team at a growing company, and when BrandWell started growing, Victoria knew exactly who to call for help with selling - but not in the way you might think.
Why people hate selling [07:28]
Women wear so many different hats as business owners, and our DNA is built to be a nurturer so asking for help can be a really hard thing to do. Often, women fall into business or they’re in a season of life where they want the flexibility and freedom to be home with tier kids so they start a business doing something they’re good at, and they’ve made sales from their friends and families, and then referrals from their friends and family, but beyond that they don’t know how to keep consistency or move beyond their inner circle referral based system. They don’t know how to build a sales process that feels good to them. They believed that selling was convincing somebody to buy something and because of these stigmas around selling, they try to avoid selling at all costs.
Feeling guilty around charging a premium for your offer [10:30]
It can be uncomfortable to talk about yourself, try and sell your service, and it may even make you feel a bit guilty. Especially when you raise your prices and charge a premium for your offer. Gwen shares that she believes this guilt and uncomfortability is due to how we were raised to be perceived in the business world and it’s a mindset shift that we have to have. Female entrepreneurs understand what they are doing very intimately, so when they’re trying to sell their offer, they begin listing all the features of what they do and they don’t really take a moment to step back and understand the value that they’re actually giving their clients. Having the clarity of how what you do is impacting people on a level that is hard to communicate is a powerful, powerful move.
Best approach to selling as a service provider? [13:23]
Understanding the benefit of what you provide others as a service. What is the outcome? People buy off of emotions and we often miss the mark when we don’t talk about the outcome- the impact, the change, how their lives are going to be better on the other end by working with us. Another area that female entrepreneurs bypass is having what Gwen calls a Client Discovery or Qualification Process in their business. This is the opportunity for you to really invest in them and ask questions that are beyond the “what’s your budget” and “why do you think you want this?”. A lot of times, what they think they might want, you might actually recommend something else that will be better for their outcome that they’re looking for. Being outcome based and not so service based is a key factor as well.
10 Myths that hold female entrepreneurs back
1. Selling is something that happens only when someone is getting ready to buy [19:42]
Selling actually happens in every single day of what you do and every interaction you have with that client. Selling is happening every time that you get an opportunity to touch that client from a communication standpoint. It’s not just when you’re trying to get them to say yes or no to your product or service.
2. You have to be an extrovert or a people person to be successful [20:18]
You do not need to be an extrovert in order to be successful. Gwen shares that she herself is an introvert and needs to take time to refuel herself after being in crowds or after spending time that she does connecting with people.
3. You can’t turn down a potential client [20:48]
Of course you can. This is your business, the goal is to get you to a place where you don’t feel like you have to say yes to everybody because you need the income and revenue. When you’re saying “No” to the wrong people for your business, that frees you up to say “Yes” to the right people, which will actually help you scale and grow so much faster. Understanding who is a good fit for you and who isn’t a critical component of it, and saying “No” to a prospect is 100% okay.
4. Discounting is the best way to close a deal [21:25]
Discounting says so much more about you in a negative way than you realize, so no, discounting is NOT the best way to close a deal. You can offer savings in your business, you can do promotions where you add extra value into what you’re offering, but never discount. It tells people that you don’t value yourself. It communicates that you don’t even think people should be paying the price point that you’re asking. When you service a client on a discount, you don’t feel as good about it as you would servicing someone that was willing to pay the high ticket price offer, and so you’re already going into this working relationship feeling less than. You’re also inadvertently training your audience to wait for you to put things on discount, which leads to high highs in revenue and extremely low lows in revenue - the yo-yo effect.
Is asking for a discount a red flag? [24:58]
Short answer, yes. But then it’s important to ask yourself, “Where did we not show the value?”, “Where did we not clearly explain something?”. People do not say yes to what it is that you’re doing for two reasons. One, they have a lack of clarity or two, because they are uncertain of the outcome. If they were certain and they could see how your services fit clearly into what they’re trying to do, they can see very clearly what the outcome is going to be, then they’ll be willing to pay any price point for that, if the pain is strong enough.
Discounted clients will always be your troubled clients [29:17]
You’re giving them permission to run you a little bit and instead of you guiding them, it’s control. Throughout the process, you can expect them to ask for more, and ultimately that means you’re doing more for less. On the flip side, the clients that save up to work with you are the dream clients. This is because they value and appreciate you and they see that you’re the expert and value your guidance.
5. Closing is the most important part of the sales process [30:44]
The actual most important part of the sales process is the one that everybody skips and that most people don’t even have a process on, and that is the client qualification discovery process. Most people go straight into word vomiting and telling the person all the things that you can do to service them, and they haven’t even asked the first question of “What’s your Pain Point?”.
6. Selling is about convincing [31:26]
Absolutely not. Gwen is all about not selling someone anything that they don’t need and certainly not about chasing anybody and begging and pleading them to work with you. There are many people behind you that actually need and value what it is that you’re offering as a service, and that’s who you should go and spend your time with.
7. You have to be pushy and aggressive [34:34]
This goes back to the selling stigma that we all know, but we’re here to break that stigma so you absolutely do not have to be pushy and aggressive. The kind of selling that happens in the Grit and Tenacity community is value selling. One of the things that Gwen does teach is to respectfully hold your prospects accountable. You get the permission to do that when you have a solid client qualification discovery process, so you’re holding them accountable and this is a mindset shift because you believe in them. When you’re following up with them, you’re showing that you believe in them enough to care to follow up. Sometimes people are busy and you’re not the only person in their inbox, so you really have to cut through the noise, which sometimes requires several follow ups.
8. Working with a sales coach is high pressure [38:19]
It’s more about digging in, looking at what’s working , what’s not working, and finding a solution that fits and feels good for you.
9. The client is always right [39:29]
Not at all. Especially as a service provider. Protecting yourself and your team is so incredibly important in understanding that you’ve built a system that works and having confidence in the system that works and standing ground on that. When someone complains, you find yourself overextending yourself and maybe even creating products and services that don’t even service your niche genre because of one person. Instead, you have to remind them that the reason they started working with you was because they saw you as an expert, they were confident in your abilities, and they wanted your recommendations to give them their best outcome.
10. Being flexible is what your clients want [47:55]
This myth is huge because so many of us equate being accommodating and flexible, to having good customer service. But, what people want when they are looking to hire you is confidence. They want a confident person that is an expert in what they do, someone that can give them recommendations of what it is to solve their problem, they’re looking for someone to show up and guide them. So, when you’re on the call trying to be flexible, it can show up as a red flag for them, and potentially lose them as a high paying client. Confident people attract confident people.
Learn more from Gwen in The Branding Business School [50:43]
Gwen is an educator in The Branding Business School where she goes more in depth on selling confidently and recognizing your benefits beyond your features that you offer. The doors to The Branding Business School are officially open, so if you want to learn more from Gwen plus other female powerhouse entrepreneurs, enroll here! Doors close for this enrollment on June 28th, 2024!
Key Quotes
“Selling should be as easy as having coffee with your girlfriend.”
Gwen Tinsley
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