What’s stopping you from selling? Here’s a sample of what I often hear when I ask the question.
- ’I can’t cold call because I don’t know how to.’
- ’I hate getting on the phone and being pushy.’
- ’Nobody likes being bothered on the phone.’
- ’My clients aren’t the type that I can ring.’
When I hear these reasons/excuses, I listen for the self-limiting belief behind them. We all know that whatever we think we can do or think we can’t do becomes our reality so perhaps the best place to start to overcome those limiting beliefs is by choosing to adopt a new belief.
Would this one work for you? ‘I am capable of promoting my services in every way.’
Unfortunately, merely thinking you can won’t get the clients queuing up to use your coaching services (if only it did!). You need to take action.
Preparing to sell
Failure to prepare is to prepare for failure. Preparation is everything, in fact, I recommend you take at least half an hour with a pad and pen and sit down in a place you won’t get distracted, and ask the following questions.
- Who is your perfect client?
This will help you to identify whom you work best with. Who have you really enjoyed working with so far? What did you enjoy about it? What were the challenges they shared with you? What sort of person were they? Is their age or gender relevant? Is their profession relevant? If so, how? Do these ‘perfect clients’ share common challenges? What are they? How will you know they have them? How do they get the help they need now?
- Where do you find your perfect client?
This will help you to identify where your perfect clients are. Do they belong to a certain industry? Where do they go to meet similar people? How did you find the ones you have already worked with? Are there organisations they belong to? Do they tend to ‘network’ somewhere?
- What are you really selling?
This will help you to identify what kind of situations your clients will bring to you. What issues do your clients have? What common statements might they make about their situation? How do they feel about the challenges they have? Do outsiders know they have these self-limiting beliefs and perceived issues? What telltale signs are there to observe? What action are they taking to help themselves with these challenges? I recommend you do some market research. Call people in your target market (where your perfect clients are) and ask these questions of them.
- What you are selling is solutions.
A drill salesperson is not selling drills - they are selling holes; you don’t sell coaching you sell solutions. What solutions will you offer your clients? What are the benefits to the perfect client of working through these challenges with you? How do you want to get these results with the client? How long do they need to work with you? How often? How much will it cost? What is special about working with you? How are you different from the next coach? Why should they use you?
I appreciate these questions may be tough to answer, but I assure you thinking along these lines and answering them will help you overcome any objections a perfect client may have. |
