WW 216: How To Avoid Being "Salesy" With Your Coaching Business - Solo Show

Listen to the show:

Listen on Spotify

Listen on iTunes

Listen on Stitcher

Resources FROM THIS EPISODE

Apply for the waitlist to get one of the first opportunities (and special bonuses) to grab a spot for the Wealthy Coach Blueprint program when enrollment opens in May!
The Client Attraction Content Matrix is here! Jump inside and get a year’s worth of content in a matter of hours! (Hint: There’s a special deal if you buy The Pricing Formula, first!)
Feel frustrated with pricing your services? Join The Pricing Formula to help you start charging the right price!

OTHER GREAT Resources

Tag me on Instagram @tess_wicks to show yourself working through the Pricing Formula. DM me your questions, thoughts, and feedback and I’ll send you a voice message with answers and so much love!
Want to work with me in my most exclusive coaching package, yet? Email me!

A Quick Recap from this episode

This week we’re talking about a topic that a lot of us love to hate: sales. More specifically, we’re talking about this fear of being “salesy” and how to avoid that. I’m not going to give you what you want, but I’m going to tell you what you need to hear. We’re going to dig into how to actually get over this fear so you can start booking and helping the clients you love!

So let’s talk about how to avoid being salesy. I want to start by first breaking down this term. The way I understand it, after having to reframe what sales is for me personally but also helping my clients, I’ve had to think about it from a different angle. It’s a term that we’ve applied to an action that is taken in every business. Even in business’ that don’t make money, there’s a sales process.

The purpose of having a sales process is there so that you can exchange value with your customer. As long as that exchange is happening, there’s a sales process. Now obviously to have a profitable business, a sale has to be made, which is what usually brings on this fear of being salesy.

Now what makes that process salesy is something that we each have an individual perception of. I would argue that what you perceive as salesy someone else would not. And the reason is because salesy is a term that we’ve used to coin a term for a feeling about selling.

The truth is though that we buy things all the time without feeling like we were sold to, and if depending on the careers that you’ve had, you’ve probably had to sell at some point and didn’t necessarily feel a certain way about it. That’s because we don’t have a fear of selling; we have a fear of a certain type of selling…one that’s usually perceived as uncomfortable.

As humans, our biggest fear is rejection. We’re afraid of being cast out of the group that we’re apart of. So it’s really important for us to unpack these perceptions.

So where do these perceptions come from?

On one hand, they come from actual lived experiences. You’ve experienced it before, didn’t like it, and don’t want to do that again. This is good because we know we want to avoid it.
The other side is that they come from passed down, inherited, or observed perceptions. I remember when I was a child we’d have telemarketers call during dinner and my parents would get mad because someone was trying to sell them something they didn’t want, so I associated telemarketers as bad.

So we have to understand that the concept of “salesy” - the feeling we’ve given a name to - this is something that is entirely perceived.

And here’s the deal: you can not control how others perceive you or the things you do. That’s so important to remember when it comes to running your own business, because there are so many fears that we have when it comes to what others will think of us.

You can’t be perfect or limed by everyone. If this fear of being salesy is keeping you from putting yourself out there, you need to challenge yourself to talk about your offer and focus on your ideal clients that you know you can help. There are plenty of processes of sales that feel just fine.

So here’s the next piece. A reason why we’re afraid of being salesy is because there are people who are doing things that make us uncomfortable and feel out in left field. There are some businesses who use tactics that are inappropriately taught and implemented.

The process of someone who has identified that they have a problem and there could be a solution out there is the buyer’s journey, and through this journey they start to realize that you have the solution for them that they can purchase. But before they get to that sales process, there’s a “getting to know you” phase. The reason we worry about being salesy is because there are people who try to sell to people who are still in that “getting to know you” phase.

Imagine someone you don’t know approaches you at a café and says “will you marry me?” It’s too soon and you haven’t build a relationship with trust. It’s the same for business…you have to build trust with your potential customer.

Go to the places where your potential clients are hanging out, but don’t propose marriage. Put the ball in their court. Lead with who you are and then have conversations, make yourself known, and show them that you’re their to help them. You’ll build trust and then be able to offer your solution to their problem.

And don’t forget to talk about your offer. That doesn’t make you salesy. It makes you a business owner who has something that can change people’s lives.

Selling is an act of service. It’s the first entry point for someone to see that they can make an investment in themselves to improve their own financial life. It’s the value of investing in their education in a way that’s going to pay off. And if you don’t sell? They don’t have that opportunity. Selling is the gateway to your clients getting to work with you and having their lives changed.

Don’t forget that if you’re ready to keep your pricing simple and get some help making more sales, then it’s time for you to grab the Online Coach’s Pricing Workbook below!