Small Business Talk
The Podcast to Grow your Business Faster
Sell Without Selling
Show Notes
A business without customers is at best an expensive hobby and at worst a stressful milestone that is dragging you down. When it comes to selling, very few people wake up every morning and say selling is what I am here for.
Selling often conjures up negative feelings of icky, sleazy and slimy. If you are not selling then how can you make sales? No sales = no business.
Let’s talk about ways that selling can be much more palatable and even enjoyable.
Authentic Selling – Selling with Integrity
Being your authentic self is the first thing to do in your sales approach. Customers and clients can sense it when you’re being fake or untrustworthy. Being open and honest about your approach is always key.
Long gone are the days of pressure selling and hard closes.
When someone is considering investing time AND money into you or your business – they want to know their money is being well spent. If they suspect someone is lying or being sneaky to get a sale, they will back away.
Relationship Building
Creating authentic connections is the only way to do business in today’s market. Your customers have so many choices and often the only difference is whether they think you care.
“No one cares what you know until they know that you care”
This quote is attributed to Teddy Roosevelt in the 1900’s. Have we learnt so little since then?
Forming friendships with your clients, showing them they are more than just $$ to you can often work well. Show them they can trust you, that you are the expert who is in it for the long game.
We all remember how we were made to feel, long after the price has faded away.
Show Customers the VALUE Of What They Are Buying
“Sell customers a TRANSFORMATION not a product or service”. When customers believe in what you sell as more than just a product they bought for money, it has value.
Buying is never about the price, it is always about the value.
We all love to go on a journey.
You are here now with the problem and we can help you get to . . . there with our solution.
No one really needs to how all the features and benefits work, they just need to know what it looks like when their problem has been solved and what the solution looks like.
This is Not The Time for How
Take some of these famous examples:
Google – Bad, irrelevant search results. Solved.
Tinder – Meeting people generally only happened on weekends, not seven days a week.
Disneyland: “The happiest place on Earth.”
Old Spice: “The original. If your grandfather hadn’t worn it, you wouldn’t exist.”
Kellogg’s Rice Bubbles: “Snap! Crackle! Pop!”
Know Your Target Audience
Knowing who your ideal and target audience is will save you so much time and money going forward. When you know and understand your target audience or niche – you can create your entire marketing strategy towards them. You can create the content they want to see – without having to constantly push your agenda and make it feel like very obvious selling.
You can’t sell to everyone and you shouldn’t.
Understand The Importance Of Branding
Get customers and clients familiar with your branding. Everything that you do within your business makes up what potential clients see as ‘your brand’.
- Your logo
- Your colours
- Your voice
- What you do
These are usually the first things people see and are essential in drawing in your target audience while creating a reputation for yourself.
Have A Great Website
A great way to sell to your clients without ‘selling’ is to have a well thought out and designed website. With everything being online these days – websites are your chance to make a first impression and stand out from the sea of others just like you.
You need to ensure your website is appealing to the eye, as one look is all it takes for someone to make their mind up about you and your business. If someone doesn’t like how your website looks, or how well it navigates – they WILL leave it.
Along with making sure your website is pretty, making sure you show up on Google search results and you’re not hidden is just as important. Without the proper SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) measures and traffic from Google – no one will visit your website.
Option to Buy
You have the problem; you have found the perfect solution and now you want to buy it . . .
There is nothing more frustrating that not being able to buy what you want when you want it.
Yet small businesses do this to their customers all the time.
Allow your customers to buy your products.
Stop trying to sell and give me the option to buy.
What’s the difference you might be asking? It’s only a change in the words.
Yes, it is. The language makes all the difference to both you and seller and the buyer.
The energy is different, the experience is different and repeat buying is often.
Rather than having one product, if you have up to 3 then people can have the choice to buy. Everybody expects to be able to see the price up front, so allow them to see it with a buy button as well.
Will this take away all the sales conversations? No, but the people you will talk to will already know what the price is so that is one less objection you will have to overcome.
To make selling easy, create an environment where your customers can buy from you.
Give them options and provide the solution to their problem, create buying opportunities.
Sell Without Selling
Listen to Episode 173 of Small Business Talk for the full details.
Check out Small Business Talk on YouTube for videos and more.
