Sales Conversations CAN Be Fun! (Hint: Your goal is NOT to get a close) - EP. 6

A business isn’t a business unless it’s making money and if it’s making money, that means something is getting sold. Selling and sales are the lifeblood of any business, and a business owner is first and foremost, a salesperson, even if they don’t want to be.

Pam Ivey introduces the importance of sales in your business and Jane Garee, our sales expert, shares why selling is the best thing you can ever do for you, your business, and your clients and how it can actually be fun.

​In today’s episode, you will hear about:

• [02:21] What selling really is and why what you’ve learned about it isn’t true
• [04:57] How to stop going for the close and what to do instead to achieve selling success
• [07:00] The difference between a goal and an objective and how understanding this one thing will change your sales conversations forever
• [10:50] Why you should go for the “no” in sales conversations and understanding how to find clients that are a good fit for you and your business.
• [20:48] How can you become a better closer on sales conversations by becoming a better opener and committing to the process.

Resources mentioned in this episode: ​

• [28:40] Showstopping Sales, Janes amazing sales community: https://showstoppingsales.com/

Did you enjoy this episode? Tell us in the comment section what you think about Jane’s dating analogy for sales conversations.

Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast and share it with your friends and family.

EPISODE 6 TRANSCRIPT

Pam: (00:00) You're listening to the Flourish and Grow to CEO podcast. This is episode six.

Pam: (00:26) Are you a lady boss making 50 to a hundred thousand in your business? And you're ready to break through that six figure barrier.

Jane: (00:34) Have you done a great job of creating a nice life as the ultimate gig master, but no, your inner CEO is calling you to greater Heights. You're in the right place. If you want to create and implement solid fundamentals in your business without sacrificing fun.

Pam: (00:48) I'm Pam Ivey, I'm certified in small business management and I concentrate in the areas of training and certifying real estate assistance, coaching and mentoring entrepreneurs in online business, marketing growth and profit acceleration. And I take men and women business owners aged 40 plus two bucket list destinations around the world for a month at a time to work, explore, and live in community.

Jane: (01:14) And I'm Jane Garee known as the sales strategist for the non sales person. And I work with business owners who want to increase their conversion rate, shorten their sales cycle and have more impact and influence with the work they do. All well having more fun with selling.

Pam: Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of flourish and grow to CEO.

I'm Pam Ivey and we're so delighted that you have come back to listen to us today. We are talking about, well, they're all important topics, but super important topics, because one is a passion of my partner, Jane, we're going to be talking about sales and then we're going to be talking about leadership and team. So without delay, I'm just going to let Jane go. Cause she is definitely the sales expert, sales, all things sales.

Jane: I love sales. This is going to be a really fun episode because I'm going to get behind my pulpit here and just school everybody up on sales and sales conversation and selling and why it is one of the most important things that you can do for your business.

Jane: (02:21) But while it is really important, it also can be incredibly fun. So my goal and intention here today is really to get everybody, to see how enjoyable a sales conversation can be. And what does selling really mean? What is selling and what is it not? So can I just start there, Pam? Absolutely take it away. All right. So sales has gotten such a bad rep over the years for all the reasons that we know that it has. And a lot of business owners, when they start thinking about having sales conversations, it just, they get everything from butterflies in the stomach to use something stuck in the back of their throat because they're thinking “Oh, this is the last thing that I really want to be. I don't like having sales conversations. I don't want to sell, I don't want to be a salesperson.” And I understand all of that.

Jane: (03:06) However, I would really love for you to start thinking in terms of sales, as something that is really just serving people at the highest level, because that's what sales is. It truly is just serving people at a very, very high level. I always like to define sales conversation is changing the world one person at a time. And what I mean by that is a sales conversation is a one-on-one interaction with somebody. And when that person steps into what they were meant to do. And when that person decides to say yes to themselves, through you, they are changed. The work that they do with you is going to create a significant transformation. And when they experienced that transformation, they are now going to go out into the world, doing what they were called to do. And by nature of that, they're going to be serving other people.

Jane: (04:00) So make no mistake. A sales conversation really has a very large ripple effect. You're going to serve them. You're going to give them the confidence they need to serve their clients and on and on. So sales, it's a really big deal. And it's a really big deal because it has a positive impact on so many other people than just the one person that becomes your client. So starting with all of that, all right. So if we just work with the premise that sales is serving, there are three things that I want to teach you today that will help you have much more effective sales conversations. You'll be able to serve more people and you'll be able to have a lot more fun when you're actually engaged in a sales conversation. So number one, and this one is a really big myths that a lot of people get tangled up in and therefore it ruins or just makes the sales on a conversation very uncomfortable.

Jane: (04:57) So the myth is this. You have to go for the close, you have to sign this person up. You have to get their credit card. So a lot of people are still under the misguided notion that when you get into a selling conversation, got to close, gotta close, gotta close. You got to make sure it has this wrapped up ending where they become your client. And now you put so much pressure on yourself, right? Yeah. You put so much pressure on yourself and unfortunately, or fortunately, really nothing could be further from the truth, your goal isn't to get into a sales conversation with somebody and close them. I'm going to say that again because a lot of you probably just want one, but I want to say this again, because this is 100% true. Your goal. When you get into a sales conversation is not to close that person or enroll that person.

Jane: (05:47) I know that's really counterintuitive. And a lot of you have gotten sales training. That's kind of like this hardcore, make them see the value and get them to say yes, and this kind of just really forceful energy. And you can get people to say yes, and you can get people to give you their credit card. But when you come at it with that kind of energy, when you try to convince them, you try to really get them to see your point of view and why they need you and why they should plunk down their money. You will get yeses on the front side. But what happens on the backside is this can lead to not so satisfactory relationships, people ask for chargebacks, they get cranky. They're not going to provide you with referrals. They regret having done it. So, and that's when you feel yucky to, right?

Jane: (06:30) Of course. Yeah. So I want to change the narrative on this a little bit. And I want everybody hearing me and listening to us today, Pam, I really want you to understand the purpose of a selling conversation. The purpose of a discovery session is to have a really rich conversation that you facilitate and guide that allows the prospect to get to their truth so they can make an informed and committed decision. At that point, you guide and facilitate a conversation that allows somebody to get to their truth so they can make an informed and committed decision in light of the conversation. Here's the thing people frequently get confused between a goal and an objective. A goal is simply a natural outcome of the objectives being met. So for example, if you wanted to lose 10 pounds, your goal would be to lose 10 pounds, but your objective would be to get up every day to clean up your nutrition, to eat properly and to get some exercise in.

Jane: (07:36) So if you met your objective every day for, I don't know, how long does it take time every day for say 30 days, you met your objectives every day for 30 days, you would meet your goal of losing 10 pounds. When you understand this, it's going to take the pressure off of your conversations or your discovery sessions. And when you understand this, you are going to be able to go into a conversation fully equipped and excited about what will happen or what potentially could happen. So again, be very clear on your objective. When you go into a consultation sales conversation, your objective is to have a really rich, rewarding conversation that will allow the other person to get to their truth and then make a committed and firm decision. From that point, when you have enough of those conversations with people, you will meet your goal of the number of enrollees you need in your program or the number of clients you need to hit a certain income level.

Jane: (08:41) Really, really key distinction there. People are not paychecks. So please do not treat them like that. People are not paychecks. This goes back to understanding that your objective is to have the conversation so they can make a decision. The goal is what's going to naturally happen or occur as a result of meeting your objectives. So if you're going into a conversation fully committed to the process, fully committed to let me guide and facilitate this conversation so I can help this person get to their truth so they can make a decision from that point. Then you are going in to serve that person. You are going in with an objective to make sure that you are providing service level at the very highest realm for this person. You are going in with an objective that you're going to listen, that you're going to ask really good questions, and you're going to help guide them through a thought process that will allow them to either step into what you're inviting them to step into or not.

Jane: (09:44) And as long as you're committed to the process and to the objective, regardless of what happens in the outcome, you will be fine. You're actually going to be better than fine. You're going to be great because when you do that enough times, number one, your goal is naturally going to be met. Number two, you will never again, have a conversation that feels yucky to you or yucky and uncomfortable to them. That is going to get you further referrals that is going to get you people who would say, you know what? This may not be for me. This isn't for me or us working together just doesn't feel like a great fit, but this was an amazing conversation. I will remember this when the time is right when I'm ready, I'll come back. Or I know somebody who would be really interested or who could really use your service. So number one, stop going for the close stop, going for the enrollment. Just stop trying to get people's credit card numbers, go in and meet your objective of having a really rich conversation that will get them to their truth so they can make an informed and impassionate decision from.

Pam: (10:50) I love it. So no is okay.

Jane: (10:53) No, it's totally okay. In fact, if you're not getting some nos, there's something probably a little out of alignment with your overall business plan. It could be your, it could be, your prices are too low. It could be that you're not stretching yourself enough. That's what's really interesting about it it's a bit counterintuitive, but if you're not encountering some nos, then what I would say as a sales consultant coming in, I'd say, let's look at your entire business because if you're not, if you're really not getting nos something's off, we need to kind of shake things up a little bit. So yeah, go for the, no, you should be getting those

Pam: (11:27) That really takes the pressure off. I love it. I love that goal is to have that conversation and get to the truth, as you say, or have that person really sit comfortably in their decisions.

Jane: (11:40) Yes. Sit comfortably in their decision. No is okay. And you should be fine with a no, which would bring me to my second point. And this is the, this is another place where people start getting tangled up. You have to work with people who are going to be a really good fit for you. I can not impress this upon people enough. How I usually say it to my clients is they're going to be really great people who are very bad fits. What that means is these are cool people, man, you'd go have a cocktail with them. You'd go shopping with them. If you're like, man, because I love to shop, you know, whatever you would go hang out with them. They're a great person, but they're not a good fit. The problem that they have really isn't something that you can solve. It may just be a little bit off.

Jane: (12:24) It doesn't feel like the chemistry is there. It's close. And because it's a really good person, the temptation is always, Hey, let me go ahead and get this person enrolled in working with me because you like them as a human, but it's not enough to like somebody as a human. When you're in business, you need to be 100% certain that the problems they have can be solved by you. And you need to be 100% certain that if you solve those problems, you are going to be the best person to take on that challenge of solving those problems. So great person, not a good fit. There's no offer. Don't offer that person. Anything. This is not somebody you're working with. This is a future referral partner. It's a future colleague. It could be a future JV partner. I mean, you've got the chemistry, you like each other, but the actual business fit for them becoming a client.

Jane: (13:12) Not great. So I want everybody to feel fully confident that you can say, no, you can say no. Or they may be saying no to you because you feel it. And that is okay. That's a great person, not a good fit. Now the reverses, you could have somebody who's a really good fit. They clearly need your help. They clearly need your service. The problems that they have, you absolutely could solve. You're the best person to solve them. All of that is lining up. I can help them. This would be an amazing client, good fit. However, that person and I don't mean bad person in a judgmental way. What I mean there is there's something off with the chemistry. Maybe they're just showing up with some energy. You don't really love. I don't like working with people who are pessimistic and are constantly trying to figure out how things are not going to work.

Jane: (13:59) That's not a good fit for me. So somebody who shows up in my world in a discovery call, if they can't see the possibility, if they're not fully committed to jumping in, if they kind of feel the fear and do it anyway, they have to have all of that criteria. Otherwise they're not a good fit for me. So people that say, well, I've tried sales before and I hate it. Or I really just don't want to be a sales person. I don't want to be one of those people. I wish I could just outsource this. That's an energy and an attitude that is not a great fit for me. So the service that I could provide, maybe spot on, I can understand and diagnose that. Yes, they need to work with me, but I don't really want to take this person on as a client so that somebody who is a good fit, not such a great person for you.

Jane: (14:41) So if I recap that what you're looking for are people who are a good fit and a good person, good client, I should say. So you're going to have great people, not a good fit. Don't work with them, no offer. Then you're going to have a really great fit. Not such a good person. Don't work with them. No offer your criteria for putting an offer out to somebody is this. They're a great person and they are a great fit. Meaning you can see every time they show up in your email inbox or on your phone going, Hey, cool. It's Pam. What are what Pam wants? I love Pam. She's so fun. I really enjoy our sessions. She listens to what I said. She implements what I tell her to do. She, she hears me. We get it. We have fun. You know, what's a good client. The synergies there, that's a great fit. If you feel like that's going to happen for you and the solutions that you come up with for them are on, then you're good. Those people get an offer. Everybody else you say no to.

Jane: (15:39) I love it. Absolutely. Because if you just gave us permission to say no to people, really it has to be a good fit because I've worked with clients that literally make me cry. Every time I got off the phone with them and you know, we're at a point in our lives and our businesses that we don't need to be doing. That kind of thing.

Jane: (16:00) We do not need to be doing that type of thing. I always liken this to dating. So for those of you who are single, you're really going to recognize this. For those of you who are married, you'll remember this, but women in particular are notorious for doing this. So check this out. You go on a date, you sit down, you're across the table from this guy. And what do we think is women? Oh, I wonder if he likes me. Wonder if he thinks I'm pretty. I wonder if he's wondering, I wonder what he, I wonder what he, I wonder what he, you know, it's all this wondering about what does he think of me? Who does he perceive me to be? And the focus in the date, on the date, that's wrong because the question should actually be, what do I think of him? So your power comes from, what do I think of him not, Oh, I wonder what he thinks of me.

Jane: (16:43) Right? We get all, woo. We get all flighty. Like, what does he think? What's he think? What do I think, what do I want? What do I need? That is a very healthy way to go about the dating process so that you don't forget that you are the most important person in that equation. In the moment when you're trying to suss out, is this somebody I want to continue to spend time with. So ladies, first of all, do that. If you're dating, if you're dating, just remember, what do I want? What do I need? What do I think I'm not a relationship and dating coach. However, I have clients who are, and they've trained me up on that. So there you go. So do that. If your day, I've got to remember that, okay, I need, what do I think of him? That's as we got to look at us first in that kind of situation, it's not selfish.

Jane: (17:28) It's smart. So do that in dating, and then you do it in a sales conversation. What do I think of working with this client? How do I perceive this relationship that I'm going to get...