I want to preface this post about selling mistakes by saying there is no right or wrong way to sell your programs or courses. Some ways feel good to some people and don’t feel good to others, but even the salesiest slimiest (to me) tactics are working for some people.
The biggest thing that impacts your sales is alignment. YOU have to feel good about the way you are selling. If you do, you will be confident, clear, and present yourself and your business to the best of your abilities. If you don’t, you’ll be awkward as heck and struggle to make progress.
It’s that simple.
But don’t worry, I’m not going to leave you hanging here! Instead, I’m going to give you a bunch of examples to help you flush out what alignment feels like to you.
How Do You Like to be Sold To?
I never work with someone on a whim. I have to get to know them first. That typically starts with following them on Instagram, reading their blog, or listening to their podcast. Once I consume their content for a while, I want to learn about their programs and understand the investment required.
This means that I automatically disqualify people who:
- Cold Email or DM
- Don’t have a clear explanation of their programs on their websites
- Hide their pricing until you get on a call with them
Remember, I’m talking about me and my feelings here. Yours may be different, and there is nothing wrong with that. What matters is that I sell the way I like to be sold to, and you do the same. You won’t ever get a cold email or DM from me inviting you to work with me. You can browse all my programs and pricing on my website whenever you want. It’s all laid out for anyone who wants to see it.
Some business coaches would be horrified that I list my pricing on our website. They think that you should start building a relationship with someone, and then when you tell them the price, they will be more likely to say yes. This feels slimy to me.
I HATE being put in the awkward position of getting off a call real quick because someone asked me for a five-figure investment when I was planning for four. It makes me feel cheap, embarrassed, and like I wasted my time and theirs. I would never put a potential client in this situation because of how icky I feel being in it myself.
Take a moment to ask yourself, how did the last three big investments you made go down? What led up to the point of you saying yes? What did you like about the process? What didn’t you like?
How can you create a sales strategy that incorporates the good stuff and leaves out what’s not aligned?
You've Invested From a Cold Message or Email
I talk quite a bit about cold messaging and pitching and how it doesn’t align with my energy. I do this on purpose. I’m calling in the people who agree with me and gently dismissing those who don’t.
Perhaps you’ve invested with someone from these tactics before, or they work well for you, and you enjoy them. Only you know the intent behind your sales process.
If you are reaching out thinking, “I believe in this person’s success, and I want to help them so badly,” instead of “I’m going to send as many DMs as I possibly can today in hopes that someone will take the bait and become my client,” cold messaging could work for you.
There are people out there who do this successfully and feel great about it. I just know that they are few and far between, and for the most part, the people who are doing it are desperate and out of alignment, and that’s a massive recipe for disaster.
You gotta be honest with yourself when it comes to avoiding selling mistakes.
Selling From a Place of Alignment
As I discussed above, I follow someone quietly for a while, and then I jump in. From their perspective, it seems like I came out of nowhere. Big surprise, UCM clients typically come out of nowhere too.
I can see that hundreds of people read this blog, and the same goes for my emails, so I’m not necessarily surprised that people come out of nowhere, but it’s always exhilarating when they do.
It feels so yummy and good to me to get on a call with someone that says, “I’ve been following you for months. I love how authentic and real you are, and I’m so excited to jump in and work with you!“
At that point, the sales conversation flows. I answer logistical questions, discuss a start date, and get to work (sales calls for UCM either end quickly or turn into more of a strategy session).
There is no convincing, no objection handling, and no manipulation. Either the person is excited as heck to work with us, and us with them, or we aren’t, and we politely go our separate ways.
Ask yourself, at what point in your sales process do you get stuck? Do you want to puke at the point where you have to tell the person your price? Do you feel like people are asking for free advice but not necessarily ever intending on working with you?
How can you make some changes to your process to avoid this?
The UCM Sales Process
From a logistical standpoint, our process is very anti “coffee-chat.” That means I don’t have the energy to get on a call with someone who is just generally interested in chatting about my programs but not ready to move forward.
This may seem cold, but I have to honor my energy, and I’m an introvert. Those calls tire me out, so I need to have as few of them as possible while still getting the job done.
I use calendly to schedule my zoom meetings. There is a form that people fill out before they can schedule. It asks them qualifying questions (like when they want to start working with us and if they are prepared to make the necessary investment if we decide the program is a good fit for them).
If I don’t like their answers to the questions, I politely decline the meeting and refer the person to someone I think will be a better match.
This process may feel like too much work for some people. You may be the kind of person who doesn’t want to read a long sales page, who wants to get on the phone and get answers to your questions. You get annoyed by having to give all that information in the form before ever talking to me.
If that’s you, then you shouldn’t set up your process like mine. You should set up a more “coffee chat” style sales call for your biz.
This means you will get on calls and chat with people even if they aren’t ready to work with you. You’ll run a lot more calls than I do. You’ll have conversations and make connections and not convert as high a percentage of calls as we do (we convert about 90%).
BUT, you’ll be energetically lit up by having these conversations, even the people who say no will leave feeling pretty good about you. They may even come back later when the time is right for them. You’ll get content ideas and energy from the calls, and it will feel so fun to connect with lots of people. Again, the only wrong answer is the one that doesn’t align with your energy.
The Final Selling Mistake - Pushing Your Money Values Onto Your Prospects
Now you understand that there is no right or wrong way to sell. The only selling mistake you can make is following a system or formula that doesn’t align with your energy. So it’s time to address the money conversation. This one is important.
Some people are totally comfortable carrying a high debt load. They will happily slap down their credit card to invest with you and be excited to do it. Others are not.
Either way, it’s none of your business. You don’t get to impress your money values on someone else during a sales conversation. Doing so is unethical.
Can you handle the responsibility of convincing someone to put your program on a credit card and then watch them become homeless or struggle to feed their family? If the answer is no (and it should be), you have no business telling someone to take on debt to invest with you.
Again, lots of people WILL take on debt to invest with you. The point is that it’s their business, not yours, and you have no place convincing them to do so.
Convincing someone to go into debt working with you starts your relationship out from a place of scarcity. They are already scared, nervous, and potentially even unsure of working with you. You don’t want that!
Your soulmate clients should be excited and ready to dive in and do the work – feeling empowered as hell for the investment that they just made. If they decided to work with you under pressure or before they were truly ready, this will never be the case.
Remember this About Selling
- You can’t make everyone like you, but you can show up powerfully for those who do.
- You can’t control someone else’s financial situation or values, but you can be ready to serve the people who are ready.
- You can’t create a sales system that everyone will love, but you can be wildly successful by building a process that feels good to you.
- It takes practice, refinement, and time to put together the perfect sales system without any selling mistakes, but the sooner you get started, the sooner you will figure it out!
Before you go
Download the FREE resource: 5 Ways to Sell Without Selling.
It will help you practice creating content that invites your soulmate clients to take advantage of your offers without forcing yourself out of alignment with your values.
Also, if you’d like to explore working with me, book a call here.
FREE: 5 WAYS TO SELL WITHOUT “SELLING”
