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Selling Without Feeling Sleazy

We're starting to transition now into really thinking about sales here's the thing with sales sales makes people feel uncomfortable it makes people feel lisi they say all sorts of nasty things about sales and sales didn't deserve it sails isn't the enemy, but let's talk for a minute about why sales feels sleazy we feel like we are interrupting people we feel like we're imposing on people let's get some ideas from you guys mike's up? Why do sales end up feeling sleazy to you? Tiffany? Why sales feel sleazy? It can feel like you're trying to manipulate someone to give you money, convinced them, convert them, change their minds so that they will hand over some dollars. Teo absolutely bridget I feel like there's a lot of marketing that makes big claims like, you know, take this programme and lose fifty pounds or take this program and make one hundred thousand dollars and yeah, so there's ah lot of, um untruthfulness about some tactics of sales and marketing. Yeah, whitney well, to be frank...

, there are a lot of sales people out there who are sleazy yeah, absolutely I don't want to be seen as one of them writes, right, right, we don't want to be kept in bad company any other reasons that sales tends to feel sleazy I feel like I'm bothering people, yeah feeling like you're bothering people when I asked as I was preparing for this and trying to figure out you know what I needed to do to talk you down from the sales ledge that was one that I heard a lot from people was that sales makes them feel like they're bothering people and hopefully in the last segment as we talked about crafting a lead and going to where our customers are at in terms of where their heads are where their hearts are and then bringing them to our key insight at our hypothesis leading them be navigating them to where they need to be you started realizing that this isn't about bothering people but really about communicating with people making connections remember quiet power strategy connections are the gold standard so connecting people where they are now what they're thinking about what their circumstances are with where they could be what they could be doing instead and you know by and large I think when we are sold to on dh where and when we're sold too well that's exactly what happens and we don't feel like someone selling to us we feel like people are making a connection between where we are right now what's what is relevant to us right this moment and where we'd like to be and that's really really powerful so when it's time for you to sell when it's time to actually make a pitch send the email ah, put the by now button on your website, what's your reaction to selling beyond feeling like it's sleazy beyond feeling like you're bothering people. What's your reaction to the need to sell? Share with us on twitter at tara, gentilly or hashtag tear alive share with us in the chat room and let's get some more answers from the audience first what's your reaction to the need to sell what goes on in your body, what goes on in your head or shell? We don't feel sleazy about selling because I love my product and I think everybody should have one that's excellent, and I hope we get some more positive answers too. I think the time to sell it could be a really exp I want to share it with people, so I'm I'm happy to do it. Yeah, absolutely, and I think that that is by far the most important motivation for business in general or for product creation in general is if you don't have a product that you just that every ounce of you wants to get into the hands of somebody else it's not the right product. It's not the right product s o that motivation to share which is exactly what selling is that's huge, and it is exciting and it is really positive and it could make you feel really alive. What else? What are some other reactions to the need? The south, sometimes that feeling like I'm so in love with this and the world needs that can just become a frustration, though, because you don't know how I mean, we're learning it here, but you don't know how to do that, and so it can almost be like one of those. Well, great have another great idea and he's gonna buy and it's just gonna sit on my website and it's tiffany's burden of greatness you are doing, you know, I think that that I think that's a core problem, I think that's a problem that keeps people from starting businesses to buy in large sasha there, I think that there's some impulse to just want to send an announcement like to not have to go through this whole what you're really describing as a writing process like it's, a really a creative it's all right, it's and it takes a lot of effort, actually and it's like, well, if I just sent out an email saying this exist, that should be enough, because here it is, come get it you know, and I don't I want to write a book I don't want to write this whole series of sales emails, but actually I think it is pretty much what it takes. Yes, it is it is as my natural path and client dr samantha dr samantha dot com would say how's that working out for you, right? It doesn't work and the putting effort into thinking about your sales strategy thinking about your lodge strategy, thinking about your marketing strategy means you actually get to do war of what you love in the end, and you get that satisfaction of making sure that what you love gets in the hands, the people that you really wanted to be in, what are some of the answers were getting online? We'll can to max says they feel vulnerable possible really, really excuse me rejection art girl says, I feel nervous that people won't buy or they're going to a nor me chris of the case has my reaction to the need to sell isn't a really big deal for me, I think because I usually get a response of oh my god, thank you. Well, that is excellent that's, excellent, and I'm glad I'm glad we got a good mix of positive and some negative feelings as well I think the question of vulnerability is huge, the sales process is a really vulnerable process and I think we kind of realized when we get into a situation where we need to sell that we aren't actually the ones in control of our businesses who's in control of our business who powers our business it's our customers it's the people that we serve and so that sales process kind of brings that vulnerability up to the top we spend so much time thinking that we're in charge directing the action and you know that's all very true and it's all well and good but in the end customers are really who's in charge and it's your job to show up in service of those customers t make that relationship happen and to make the sales relationship happen um so the question that always people want once the question that people always want to know the answer to is how should not be sleazy when they're selling just like whitney said how do you avoid being in the company of sleazy salespeople and I'm trying not to say used car salesman because I don't want to encourage the wrath of used car salesmen all over the nation I think there could be sleazy salespeople in every single industry in every single field and there can be powerful genuine serviced based a sales people in every single industry rien every single field on I want you all of course to be in that latter camp so what's the easiest way to combat a sleazy sales experience it's with stories it's what we've just been talking about for the last hour or so, it's telling people a story that resonates with them that does, you know, get grabbed their heart first and then makes sense in their head, right stories are the way we communicate there's there's, a great book called the clue train manifesto that starts off markets or conversations, and it leads to a point that says conversations happened between humans in a voice that sounds human. I know that that seems like a no brainer, but this is what doesn't happen in marketing this is what doesn't happen with sleazy sales. People start coming up with copy or, you know, coming up with pitches that don't sound human, the easiest way to sound like a relatable human being is to tell a story that's what we're going to dio this afternoon now, I am no great storyteller, but what I can dio is a range information in a way that makes sense that creates flow that works you through from where you're at tau, where you want to be and that's what we're going to do, just like we kind of started with in the last segment, we're going to do it again, and I'm going to give you a bunch of different tools to think about so that you can take it kind of your ah, fundamental understanding that you have of this process and really bump it up quite a few levels. All right, that's, what we're doing this afternoon, eso are quiet power strategy for this session is that stories, our service, and if the easiest way to sell is through stories than sales are service service, this is how we help other people it's, how we help them solve their problems. It's, how we help them seize their frustrations, it's, how we help them achieve their desires if we can do that through stories that sell all the better. All right, but until you sell a product to someone, you are not functioning at the highest level of serving them, right, they might read your free block post, they might read your emails, they might download that free workbook that you have to offer, but they're not getting the essence of what you really do until they've purchased with you the difference that people the difference in not making an investment vs making an investment in how much people are served by what you do is huge makers get this because people either have their product or they don't write, but those of us who are content marketers, writers by trade idea, people who are building information products or services or transformational experiences we keep giving and giving and giving and giving and we under we don't understand why people just don't get it and then if they just don't get it, why don't they and then they don't buy because they don't get it you get them to get it and then they buy right and then when they buy you have the opportunity to serve them at the highest level and a story is how we're going to do that because when you tell a story you give your customers a chance or your prospects a chance to say hey that's may when someone can see themselves in the story that you're telling everything feels really natural it feels human it doesn't feel like a company or a business marketing to someone feels like a conversation it feels like a yeah I get it yes that's me yes, I understand what you're saying tell me mohr there's a lycan implied conversation happening there so what's most important in the stories that you're telling feelings right? Because we talked about selling with the heart first and then the head you have to know how your customer is feeling before and how your customers feeling after does that sound familiar? And then you need to be able to incorporate those feelings in different ways throughout your copy or throughout the whole experience of what you're creating in the story that you're telling so let's say you're doing a live sales call instead of writing a sales page if you know what feelings your customers are trying to achieve you can think about how to guide the conversation in a way that creates those feelings and if you know how they currently feel but don't want to feel anymore even steer them away from those feelings you can put safeguards in place so that if one of the things that they feel is overwhelmed you can avoid adding layers and layers and layers onto the problem because that's just gonna make them feel more overwhelmed to not closer to a solution right so maybe you can strip everything down make the process is simple a ce possible and help them find the focus that is the feeling that they want to have right so really nailed down what those feelings are that are where they are now and where they want to be and look for every place you could incorporate those feelings into the story sometimes we use the words sometimes we were late examples that tell those things sometimes we use images that kind of bring those feelings to mind sometimes we change color schemes for this change fonts for this this is about creating an experience that uses the feelings your customers want tohave or trying to get rid off to create a better sales experience circumstances circumstances are another thing that we think a lot about our another really powerful tool that we can use in the sales process details really thinking about that pad of butter that meghan was talking about in the very first segment right or the crowd of losing details now not getting invited to meetings that whitney mentioned earlier it's those tiny details in the circumstances and the er the stories that we tell about the circumstances our customers are in that room really draw people into the story even if those details aren't exactly true for this person or that person, they're still going to see themselves in that story, right? You know, for example, I just finished reading a siri's called the serious that starts with the book the magicians by lev grossman and its adult fantasy but it's like a don't fantasy for kids who grew up on kid fantasy so it's for those of us who grew up wishing that we could go to narnia or that harry potter was riel so in this siri's harry potter israel essentially or it's that's a really world on dh narnia israel too but it's not called narnia. Anyhow, the story is about a boy o r a young man and his circumstances living in brooklyn. Well, those air details right? And they're not my details I have neither male nor do I have I ever lived in brooklyn, nor have I ever gone to boarding school or private school or any of those things, but at the same time those details are so special civic enough to transport me into the role of that character, right? This is what we get every time we read a really good buck, we get transported into the feelings and circumstances of the characters that were reading about and we can put ourselves in that place, and we can measure whether that story feels true to us or not the stories that feel true to us through the stories we read through to the end, the stories that don't sit on the shelf and that's fine right in this case, if you can pull your reader into the story enough that she finishes your sales page there's an excellent chance that she's going to buy what it is that you're offering. So thinking about details and details that draw people in results. Of course, not only do you need to be able to tell a story about where someone's at right now, but you need to be able to tell a story about where they want to go. Another book recommendation this book is by michael schrage and it's called hoodie hoodie customers want to become or who do you want your customers to become? And the idea is that we're all trying to become something else, whether it's a better version of ourselves or an idea of something that we're not like jessica's customers want to be a plus parents, right? Megan's customers want to be up women who are free of their eating disorders karen's customers want to be free from depression sasha's customers want to be women who are turned on and loving life right means our ideas of people that they want to become and so you can tell a story of that transformation or you could tell a story about ah person that's living that life like sasha was talking earlier about this client that is what did she say? Totally turned on sex kitten embracing her inner sex kitten so that's who she wants to become right and you can tell a story about or she could tell the story of how she has actually become that that's extremely powerful that's a story about results and all the details all the circum stances in that story become details that draw people and make that story feel more real. And then the last part of the story is how you're going to get from before to after this is kind of your key insight it's that those little nuggets of information that kind of gives people a transition from the before to the after so earlier when we did jessica's when we did the lead lab earlier and we pulled tio that together and jessica came up with three ideas these air the three things that people are stuck on, the three things people that are standing in people's way on we're goingto erase those three things I'm going to bust those three miss that's a story about how you're going from before to after and it's a great way to kind of make your mark or set yourself out set yourself apart in terms of the rest of the market because how I go from point a to point b from before to after is different than another business strategist would d'oh, who is different than another business strategist who is different from another business strategist. And so if I give just that little bit of insight into how I'm working from before toe after I start telling a story that's not only unique to you but that's unique to me and so that's how you make a good that's how a customer makes a good measure of whether this is a right fit product for them because the before could be spot on the after could be spot on the key insight could be spot on, but if you're not making that transition in a way that really resonates with the prospect it's not a good fit for them and then I don't want the buying the product that's just going to create more problems, right? So telling that part of the story is also really helpful.