If you want to succeed in sales, you need to post thought-provoking content.
If you want to succeed in sales, you need to forge authentic connections.
If you want to succeed in sales, you need to become a thought leader.
How can you achieve any of this when just the thought of selling makes you uncomfortable?
That is the core of the problem for many solopreneurs and small business owners. Even if you’re posting content that engages your audience and building a network of raving fans, converting all that into a sale feels…slimey. It’s the only way to describe it because of how the media paints the “traditional” salesperson.
However, you’re not a traditional salesperson and social selling is not a traditional sales approach.
Social selling doesn’t require you to be a salesperson
In the days of cold calling, you needed the skills to keep people on the phone or to stop them shutting the door in your face. This involved a lot of overpromising and charming to create the illusion of a trusting relationship. The issue is that a genuine trusting relationship can’t be built with someone you’ve just met. Hence the image of the “slimey salesperson” who just says anything they can to make a sale.
Social selling has solved this issue. Now, you can build genuine, trusting relationships with your prospects that could cut out the sales talk altogether. People want to be approached as individuals and have a clear understanding of how something is going to benefit them. Social selling allows you to convey your value and message all while demonstrating your expertise and therefore establishing credibility.
As a solopreneur or small business owner, you already have the people skills necessary to start these conversations. Where you’re falling short is the wall that you think stands between you and moving these conversations into sales territory. Social selling doesn’t require you to make this hard sell step. Your prospects will respond better to a gentle approach, one that genuinely puts their best interests first. As long as you believe in your business and the product/service you’re offering, you can achieve this.
Re-frame your understanding of selling
So, the truth is that you are not uncomfortable with sales. You’re uncomfortable with an outdated concept of sales that is no longer needed to be successful. Even with the popularity of social selling, these misconceptions and myths are still rife in the business world. It’s understandable that you don’t want to pretend you’re something you’re not to get what you want. If you feel you don’t have the right kind of confidence to charm people then you’ll be happy to hear that you don’t need it.
What you need to succeed at sales as a solopreneur or small business owner is an unshakeable belief in your offer and a clear understanding of your ideal prospects – two things you will already have because they are what helped you start your business in the first place. Now that you know this, it’s time to take things further.
On May 13th, one of the masterclasses at our Growth Titans Summit will teach you how to completely re-frame the way you think about sales with practical tips to sell honestly, successfully and consistently. Get your tickets here and learn more about the other expert masterclasses that will be hosted throughout the day, all of them designed for ambitious entrepreneurs ready to win, grow and profit.