How to be great at selling without being salesy

[00:00:00] The time is now episode 315. Selling can feel so icky sometimes and uncomfortable or unauthentic, but it doesn't have to be this way. There is actual a way to be able to sell really effectively, to be really good sales person while being authentic and making sure to serve your clients first. Welcome to the Time Is Now the podcast show designed to take action and stay on top of your game to make a bigger impact with your business while creating more freedom and purpose in your life.

[00:00:36] This is your host, Amel Derragui. I am here to help you get the clarity and the action plan You need to position yourself as the go-to expert in your field and grow a business that is aligned with your needs. This is your time to create more growth, alignment, and impact with your business. Without selling and without being comfortable selling [00:01:00] it is really hard to actually grow that business and create the revenue that will allow you to have the freedom that you're looking for and the impact you want to make.

[00:01:09] But it can be tricky. I get it. It can be really tricky, but also feel really icky to be sales oriented and to know how to run that sale call or that sale meeting in a very authentic way that feels aligned with how you wanna do business, but still effective so that the client can really see the value, what you have to sell.

[00:01:31] So for that reason, I am going to give you some of my secrets throughout the selling in this episode. And I wanna first start with that importance of shifting our mindset around what selling means. In fact, we have been used to associating selling with being pushy, with associating selling with. Getting people to do something they don't necessarily want to do, or pushing them to make decisions without them knowing all the facts [00:02:00] and all the information they need to make the decision.

[00:02:02] And that is the one thing that we need to tackle here, because that is a belief that we all have, that we want. When we want to be authentic that we try to not get there. So very often becoming an effective salesperson or getting the training we need to be able to sell effectively is often associated with actually trying to trick our clients.

[00:02:22] And although it is unfortunate that there are actually a lot of salespeople out there who are very pushy and tricking their people at is, it is so important to understand that for you to become great at selling, you need to, first of all, love selling and. I hope that by the end of this episode, you'll be able

to start making that first step to appreciating what selling is truly, and here's how I look at selling.

[00:02:49] For me, selling, it's never about pushing people to make the wrong decision for themselves. And selling is not about speaking the whole time and pushing the value of [00:03:00] our product. Selling is more about listening and asking the right. Questions that what selling is all about. And when you do it this way, suddenly it's not about being pushy.

[00:03:14] And most importantly, you create a safe space, an authentic space for clients to express themselves and to make sure that whatever you have to sell is the actual good fit, not only for your client, but also for yourself. Indeed, if you truly care about being authentic and you truly care about providing value to your clients, I know that for a fact, you'll not take a client if you don't feel that you can truly create the impact that they need or the change that they need, or the transformation that they need.

[00:03:44] So from the moment that you come from a genuine place where you actually want to know if the issues or challenges that your client has is something you can fix from that moment. That you are curious to understand what's that challenge, and if you can fix it, [00:04:00] then you already have done most of the work of truly being authentic.

[00:04:04] So if you're worried about being salesy, start by first approaching your sales call more as a conversation with your idea clients to understand what they need and to make sure that the challenges that they have are something that you can solve for them. And for that reason, I often tell to my clients, you are actually not selling, you are coaching the sell.

[00:04:26] So you are helping your clients through questions to understand their own needs, to make sure that they have clarity on what they truly need. 'cause it have very often happens that actually clients don't know exactly what they need. So your job is to understand and help them understand their own needs.

[00:04:43] And once they do that, then you can discuss together whether your solution is the right fit for them or not. So that's the first big shift to have. And from now on, I invite you to say, okay, how can I coach this client to make the right [00:05:00] decision for themselves? And that's why I often talk about coaching the sale.

[00:05:05] All right, once you have done this important shift, now I'm gonna give you some small, practical steps that will really make a huge difference for you. I actually learned about sales many years ago. I was in my twenties when I

decided to go to the United States and go on a crazy adventure to sell unto Edia door to door, and that was one of the most life-changing experiences.

[00:05:27] In terms of, uh, personal adventure, but also professionally. And one of the biggest takeaway I got from that experience of being trained to sell door-to-door is the importance to really follow what we call the sales cycle. And the principle of the sales cycle is to ask a series of questions, and at the end of each of those milestone steps of the sales cycle, that you get an affirmation that you confirm each step before even you provide your product or explain your product or talk [00:06:00] about pricing.

[00:06:01] And here is basically in a nutshell what you need to achieve in that call. For you to be able to convert it into client, you need to have at least three yeses. During the call, before you even talk about your product or service or your prices, the first yes you need to get is to confirm they understood well the challenges they're going through.

[00:06:25] What you need to do from the get go when you start the conversation with your client is to spend as much time as you need to understand their challenges. Most of the conversation needs to be questions that you ask your ideal clients to make sure that you understand all the spectrum of their challenges and the needs they have so that you can really analyze, first of all, if you actually truly can help them.

[00:06:50] And where are they in terms of their challenges? What is the mindset where they are and how important it is for them to actually fix that and for what reason [00:07:00] are they motivated to fix that challenge? So take the time to listen and ask the right questions to identify those key pain points. If you have heard my episodes in the past, you know that pain points are actually the symptoms of the problem that your clients have.

[00:07:18] So you want to understand what are the symptoms, how do the problems that they have manifest in their business, in their lives, in any area where you intervene as a professional. Once you have asked those questions, then it's time for you to summarize what you understood in few key points, and then reflect them back to your client and ask for the question if they agree with that summary.

[00:07:42] If they say yes, then you can move on to the next step. If they are not showing themselves very assured with how you summarized it, then dig deeper to make sure that you get it. And maybe you realize that actually that's not what they need, or they realize that that's not the [00:08:00] challenge, and maybe you actually realize from the first step.

[00:08:03] You are not the right person for them, and that's okay. That's when you're authentic. When you realize that you're not the right person, then you can also say, Hey, I don't think I can support you in this matter, but maybe there's a way I can connect you with the right people. Don't hesitate to be service oriented even when somebody's not the right client for you.

[00:08:22] You can always connect them with the right people. So don't take that as a failure. Quite in the opposite. Your client might really admire that you have been there for them to listen and also to help them understand their needs. As I said before, some people sometimes don't really know where they are in their journey, and they need the set of ears to actually reflect back to them where they are standing regarding their challenges.

[00:08:48] So if they say not too sure or they're not seem very affirmative, then either dig deeper or share with them. You know that what you think you can do about that. But if they [00:09:00] confirm and are super positive about the summary you made, about the challenges that they want you to help them with, then you move to the next step.

[00:09:09] The second yes, you need to get through that conversation is when you confirm what they actually want on the other end. Of their challenge, what is the result they actually want? What are they looking for as a transformation? So you need to ask questions to get that information, and then you summarize it with the key points, and you ask the client if you got it right, when they say yes, then you can move to the third one.

[00:09:37] The third yes, is about making sure that your offer is what they need. So once you have. Confirmed with them, their challenges, confirmed with them what they actually want as a result. Then you come to the space where you explain how you can help them and what is your process, and at the end of that, then you ask the client if it makes sense, is it what they're [00:10:00] looking for?

[00:10:00] If they say yes, then you can go to the part where it's about explaining the price, et cetera. So it's really important that you go through this process of getting three yeses in your call before even you talk about your product or service or your pricing. And here is a very quick but so powerful tip I wanna share with you about the way you ask these questions to get those yeses.

[00:10:27] In fact, while I say that, you have to have three yeses throughout the call before you even talk about pricing and start really selling. What you want is more than just a word. Yes. You want a complete sentence that affirms that this is what they want. Try as much as you can to avoid asking questions that the answers are yes or no.

[00:10:49] It's much more effective when you ask open questions that leads the client to give you a complex and full sentence answer so that you can really see the depth of their answer and [00:11:00] what they truly mean. For example, once you present your uh, system or how you work with your clients and your product or your service, how it functions at the end of this process, you can ask some open questions that help you see if they understood the how it works for them.

[00:11:18] For example, you could say something like, now that I shared with you how this, uh, products works, how do you think it'll support you in these challenges? That's just one example, right? You could take it in different ways, but you can see how I didn't ask here, okay? Is that product what you need? That will be an answer with yes or no, but instead a question that is open and that leads to a conversation so that you can really know where is that ideal client in terms of mindset regarding the conversation you're having.

[00:11:50] Are they in it? Are they not in it? The more open questions you ask and the more details you have about where they are in this sales process, [00:12:00] the better it's gonna be for you to navigate this conversation with your client and make sure that you actually. Pick them up when, where they are with their decision making process.

[00:12:10] During that conversation, which leads me to something important as well. There's another thing you want to do before even you talk about your price. That is one of the things that most people are afraid to do, but yet when you do it, you are more likely to convert than if you don't do it, which is addressing potential.

[00:12:31] Objections. So while you're asking all those questions to your clients to understand their needs, what they're looking for, if what you have to offer is really a good fit for them, you then, before you talk about pricing, you wanna make sure that you know what could be the objections for them to invest in the product or service you have.

[00:12:49] One of the questions you could ask, for instance, is, what could stop you from actually getting these results with this solution? Or what are the things that might make you feel more [00:13:00] hesitant about getting into this? So really go and tackle the reasons why they might not buy from you before even you talk about price, so that you could address those points.

[00:13:11] In some cases, you can go as far as already asking them before you talk about pricing, asking them what are they ready to invest or what are. They're willing to invest in order to solve this problem. What is the budget that

they have? Don't be afraid to ask that question so that at least the money objection does not come into place.

[00:13:31] Once you have announced the price, when you anticipate objections, you increase your chances to sell, but also you decrease the fears that the clients might have that they might not be expressing to you when you don't ask them those questions. It. Happens more often than you think that clients are actually not asking you the questions that they need to make the decision.

[00:13:57] And therefore they feel [00:14:00] hesitant and therefore they don't get to buy your product. Even if deep inside they might know this is what they need. So help them analyze their thoughts and help them make sure to express their fears with you before. Even you finish that call their meeting, sometimes you can even do this by email by the way, but don't shy away from them telling you all the reasons why they are hesitant before even they invest.

[00:14:24] And you also want, on the other hand, to know how committed they are to actually not only invest money in your product or service, but. Invest whatever is needed for this product or service to work. For instance, when I work with my clients, I often ask them, how are they managing their time? You know, how much of a priority is this in their life right now to invest in their business and why is it a priority?

[00:14:50] And what could stop them? What could slow them in the process if they expressed some of those reasons? Then we first talk about what they could do to make sure that they [00:15:00] commit. And if we see that they can't commit, sometimes I actually tell to the client, I'm not sure this is the right time for you to invest, and this is how I make sure to really be authentic and be effective at selling, but at the same time, choosing the right client for myself because I cannot guarantee that the process will be smooth with a client if this client cannot commit to the process.

[00:15:24] So at the end of the day, we never know until we start with a client. But the more we anticipate those objections, but also those obstacles for, for your service or your product to go well, the better it will be for you to not only convert, but also to have a wonderful customer experience for your client and a real transformation at the end of this process.

[00:15:46] So don't shy away from asking all the questions they need to make the decision for themselves and for you to understand if that's the right client for you, that what makes a real good [00:16:00] salesperson, not somebody that talks about the product or service all the time, but rather that spends more time asking those questions than.

[00:16:09] Trying to pitch the product or service. So once you've gone through that process of asking those questions and getting those three first affirmations, as well as addressing the objections, the next step is to talk about pricing. And here is what I often see people do is that. If you're uncomfortable with talking money and talking price, you are mostly likely to actually at the end of the call, say okay, or at the end of the meeting say, okay, I will be sending you my offer by email.

[00:16:40] I suggest you as much as possible to actually make the offer on the call and talk about the price. On the call because then you can address with them live whatever objections and questions they can have right away. 90% of my calls, the decision is made during the call because we [00:17:00] have gone through the process of addressing every questions they might have had.

[00:17:05] So think about that as well. Don't shy away from presenting your price points and talking pricing with your clients on the spot so that you can really address any hesitations they might have. The moment. So here, make sure to pay attention to your body language and the thoughts in your head. That's the moment where sometimes it feels really icky when we start talking about money.

[00:17:28] So for you to start talking about money very comfortably without shying away, without creating that weird energy that even the client might sense. First of all, make sure that you actually know your products really well. Before you jump on a call or a meeting with a client, have do the research before the meeting and have a little bit of an idea of what are the package that you might offer and prepare them in advance because then you will be able to explain them better, but you will also feel very secure in your language and in your body language as well.

[00:17:59] Verbal language [00:18:00] and body language. You will show up more secure when you are prepared. If by any chance you have not worked on creating your packages and your offers and having clear price points in your services, even if you are a consultant, and I know that a lot of consultant cannot create pre-packaged solutions, even then, I highly recommend you to work on your pricing and know exactly how your price structure works.

[00:18:25] If you're struggling with that, I invite you to check one of my episodes on the topic of how to create effective offers in your business. Even if you're a consultant and don't have clear offers, to find the link to this episode, go to the show notes of this episode. The time is now biz slash 315, and you will find the link there so you can tune into this episode and find guidance on that.

[00:18:50] So. Once you've gone through this process that I just explained to you and you're ready to talk about pricing, usually you already sense that the client is ready to ask you, okay, [00:19:00] how much is it now, if you have done the a good job at asking the right questions, by then it should be the client who sells you.

[00:19:06] Okay, I want this. How much is it? If not, you can also simply tackle the question right away. Say, so I shared with you this product. How do you think it will help you? That will answer the question, do you feel it's the right moment for you to invest? That will answer the question, and then they should by then say, okay, it depends how much, but you can also simply ask the question, would you like to know how much is the investment for this product?

[00:19:29] Sometimes you will be surprised if they feel like if they're not ready, they might tell you, listen. I actually don't think it's the right moment. If they say yes, then you explain the price. You give them their options without any achiness. Just make sure to be as natural as possible. I said, try to watch your body language and make it look, feel natural, and the more you do it, the more natural it'll be.

[00:19:51] But if you have gone through that process of coaching the sale, like I showed you, that price conversation becomes so natural. And the more you do it, [00:20:00] the easier it gets. And once you explain the price very often, it's also going to be very natural. Um, don't have that like. Silence can be really good in a process, but once you give the prize, you can ask them something like an open question about it, like, is it an investment?

[00:20:19] You want to start now or in a week? When is a good date for you to get started? That's usually the question that I ask because it shows me how, how committed they are. Uh, when would that be a good time for you to get started? So that's a good question to ask, but you can ask other open questions to make sure that this is the investment they want.

[00:20:37] If not, by then they will tell you, listen, you know, I think I have to think about, and et cetera. So when you feel like they're hesitant, try to ask questions to know what is making them hesitant. Right without being pushy, but still try to understand maybe there's a question that they still need to ask, they didn't realize.

[00:20:56] They need to ask to have clarity. So again, don't make [00:21:00] any taboos around the prize. Be relaxed and ask all the questions that need to be asked for the person to be able to make that decision. And just like I started at the beginning of this call, this is not about you pushing a product or a service that the person does not need.

[00:21:16] It's about you helping this person, making the right decision for them. So help them by asking the right questions and guiding them through their reflection process. I hope that this episode was very helpful for you. Don't hesitate to reach out. If you have any questions, you will find all the information on.

[00:21:34] The time is now biz. You'll be sent to my website and my contact information. Also, if you're really struggling to define your offers or to even prepare for a sales call, now that you can schedule a 90 minute session with me to help you get ready to run your calls and convert them with confidence and effectiveness to find all the information, go to.

[00:21:57] The time is now biz [00:22:00] slash three 15 and you'll find the link to schedule your 90 minute session with me. I hope I'll find you there and meet you there and have the chance to support you and connect with you. In the meantime, I can't wait to meet you in the next episode as well. Stay tuned to turn your challenges into great opportunities to create a business with, with growth, alignment, and impact.