Sales. How many of you reading this feel comfortable pitching yourself and your service or product?

If you’re like many, the thought of sales makes you cringe, and yet it’s an integral part of running a business, right? Your business can’t survive if you’re not selling. 

One of the big things that has helped me grow and scale my business is getting over the fear of sales, learning how to strategically get sales, make sales calls, and how to talk to people and make it a fun process. I never actually thought that I would ever refer to sales as “fun” but I promise you, it can be!

First Things First: How To Approach the Sales Process

The first thing we have to understand when we think about sales is that some people out in the world have this energy that makes it feel icky, where you know that you’re being sold to and it doesn’t feel good.

Do not approach your sales process that way, obviously! Instead, think of it as a gift, an opportunity for those folks that we’re speaking with to help them invest in their dreams, or the things that they want or need.

Sales is not about sticking your hand in somebody’s pocket, pulling out their wallet, and taking their credit card. It’s not about manipulation in any way, shape, or form. Instead, what we want to be doing is guiding them through the process to help them discover the way to get what they want is to work through their fear, and we are somebody who is empowered to help them do that.

It’s that simple.

So say you’re making a website for somebody, or you’re building out a beautiful brand, or you’re coaching them, or any kind of service-based thing, you are understanding not only what’s not working for that person, but you understand what they desire, and sharing with them how you can help them get to where they want to be.

Reframing your sales process is so important to get over any fear or ickiness around sales. Before getting comfortable with sales, I would almost think of making a sale as taking money from someone and giving it to myself, when actually, sales is an exchange in monetary value for a transformation of some kind. It’s not about taking something from someone, it’s about sharing something with someone, helping somebody get further along the path that they desire. And it’s important to remember that they are making a choice.

One great tip I found to help with this reframing is to call a pitch an “invitation” instead, because really what we’re doing in a pitch is inviting somebody to get what they desire through you, and yes there is a value exchange because that’s how it works – energy, time, money, these are all ways that we exchange value with one another and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Meet Your Customers Where They Are

One of the other big shifts I made to get into the right sales process mindset was to start catering the solutions to the clients. That means going beyond the traditional “here are the problems I solve” pitch and actually listening to the problems that they’re specifically having, and then catering your solutions to what that person is saying directly.

How To Reframe Your Sales Pitch From Sleazy To Positive

If you are personally having the mindset issue that sales is sleazy, it’s time to change that to make it be about positive experiences only! 

There are a couple of things that you can do to help with this. The first is to really be genuinely connected to the person that you’re speaking with. So rather than having that energy of “I just want to sell you something” have the energy of “I really want to help you solve your problem” instead.

Another thing to remember is that when people are on a call with you they inherently understand they’re on a sales call, right, unless you have positioned it completely 100% as a friend chat or something else. So they’re interested in hearing about how you can help, that’s the whole point of the call!

The second thing is to have multiple ways to work you presented in each call. So for example, I like to give people two to three ways to work with me, and they way that I do this is to share the different ways that we can solve their problems. Sometimes it’s an intense offering that will give them their transformation quickly, other times it’s a small bite to give them a hint of what the transformation could look like. By sharing different ways that you can help them you’re asking them which way feels good for them, not coming at it from a “do you want to work with me or not” perspective. This is about you empowering them to make a decision, it’s not about rejection.

Get Comfortable With Sales

But also don’t pressure yourself to be a superstar at it right away if it’s not naturally your strength!

The best way to get comfortable is practice, and the best way to avoid feeling desperate is to do a lot of calls. It just so happens that those things are completely aligned, because practicing means you have to do a lot of calls, right?

Try giving yourself a challenge to do 100 calls in 30 days. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to actually do 100 calls in 30 days, but what it does mean is to put the energy forward as though you were going to so that you’re always in this flow of reaching out and booking calls. 

Then start booking, getting that practice in, and before you know it you’ll be a sales superstar – or at least a heck of a lot more comfortable with the sales process!