Get Over Your Fear of Sales Fast!

Well, hello everyone, and welcome to Taking the Yuck Out of Selling, a masterclass with me, Frances Pratt. I'm really looking forward to spending the next hour with you to go through some ideas about, firstly, well, why is this important and why do people hate selling? And then most importantly, what are some mind tricks? They're not tricks, mind tools that you can use to take the yuck out of selling. So let's get started. I've already said that bit. Okay, so You're in the right place if you have a business or you're starting one soon, but you're struggling with consistent clients and sales. You know that what you do is wonderful, but you're not sure how to get people buying or keep them buying from you. This isn't for you if you're not really open to thinking or working a bit differently, or you plan to take part in the presentation, which is free, and then get upset if I make an offer at the end. So there we go. But here's my promise to you. You will get for the next 60 minutes awesome ideas and concepts and insights into how I help and things that will really help you. And all of the things that I talk about, I know they work because I've been selling for more than— well, not more than, but nearly 30 years. And I've been helping organizations and individuals get better at selling For more than 15 years, so I know that these work. So I'm really excited to work with you and to open up your mind to some new ideas. So who am I? I'm a I'm one of those people who love selling. I love talking to clients. I love what I do, and I've had the great fortune to be doing that for more than 27 years. Um, but over the last 15 years, as I've been working with others to help them get better at selling, what I've really worked out that I love more than selling itself is teaching people both hidden rules, the things that people don't understand about how sales work and how people buy, so that you can get better at it, you can be better at it. And so that's some of what I'm gonna be sharing with you today. Okay. So before we even think about what to do about hating sales, I think it's really important to, to just think about why is this important and why you people hate sales in the first place. So I suppose, um, the why it's important component is really obvious. Well, to me anyway. Um, our business is created on clients and selling to those clients. So to me, if we can create a beautiful business that is surrounded by clients that we love to work with, that gives us The right energy, the right income, and whether that's you on your own or you with a team, it's really important to set up a business that's sustainable and successful and makes you feel good in in your hip pocket, in your heart, and every other every other way. So that's what I want to do. I want to help people unlock this. Sales thing, that it takes the ick out of selling so that you can create the business that you want. So why do people hate selling? So the first concept that I would love to talk to you about, um, is crocodile selling. So for those of you who might have read my book More Sales Less Marketing, In there, I talk about a concept of crocodile selling versus great selling. And if you think about the used car salesman, those people who you walk into a room or a meeting and all they're focused on is what they want, you can see the dollar signs in their eyes and it just feels yuck. And so When we think about that, we think, I definitely 300% do not want to be that person. I don't want to be pushy, icky, sticky, yucky. I don't want to annoy people. I don't want people to think I'm a fraud. I don't want people to think like I'm charging too much, that I'm overconfident. All of these things go through our heads. So Does that version of selling exist? And the answer is yes, it does. We've all witnessed it. We've all been a part of that where you've— or perhaps I should say a victim of that. But just because there are crocodiles still on the earth doesn't mean we're in the age of the dinosaurs. So that selling, the age of that selling is gone. Great selling is actually about helping people. It's about helping people make a good buying decision for them, and our job in great selling is to help them on that journey to make great decisions for themselves and their companies. The second reason that it's really important to think about why we hate sales and to get over That is because I don't know. For those of you who grew up in Australia, there's these Vita-Wake biscuits, and when you squeeze them, these cute little well, and also we eat Vegemite, right? So these cute little worms come up out of the holes in the biscuits. And what I learned as a kid was if you put enough pressure on these cute worms, and it's all okay. So we need to have a little bit of pressure to create the worms. But if you put too much pressure on. Everything breaks, and the black Vegemite goes everywhere. And when you do that, you're always wearing a white top. So we need to address the fear so that we can put—we can—we cannot have the excess fear because here's what's what happens if you think about that crocodile salesperson and you think, I definitely don't want to do that. then instead you become apologetic. You move so far in the other direction that people don't understand that you actually want them to buy from you. So we need to address the fear. We still need to have some pressure, but we need to find a new way of selling. And that's exactly what I want to be talking with you about today. So let me— sorry, hang on. So we've talked about why people hate selling and why it's important. But I want to encourage you that when we embrace great selling, and have that as a fundamental part of our business, we don't just focus on that end result. If you think about what I talked about at the beginning, a great client isn't just one that pays you money. It's someone who appreciates you, who absolutely pays you money, and hopefully on time. Um, they work in with you, they give you feedback, they make you feel good. You you have team around you, um, or, or you're working on your own in a way that, that gets you a result, it gives you value. And so often one of the biggest mistakes that people make in the sales process is just to focus on that end result. So the only result they think about is, did I close the sale? And unfortunately, there's lots of steps before that and lots of results along the way. So I just want to encourage you that if you take one thing from this masterclass today, I really want you to get out there and try some things. Talk about your business. Did people respond? That's a result. Did someone ask for more information? That's a result. Did you do a beautiful follow-up call that, that helped the person, or did you have a discussion with them that helped them see a new way? That's a result. All of these micro results end up with great clients. And at the end of the day, if we have enough of those with the right number of clients, then we'll have the business that we want. And so often, instead of looking at how do we create the results, we look at the results that we haven't created and go, I'm no good at selling. So let me move that all around for you in your brain and work with you today on that. So today I'm going to cover, um, the 3 biggest fears that I see and what to do about it. So I suppose they're myths about what great selling is, or what even any form of selling is. So the first one I often hear is, hey, Fran, in order to be great at selling, you need to be vivacious or outgoing or extroverted or words to that effect. No, actually, I know fantastic salespeople who are deeply introverted. Highly analytical, shy, outgoing, tell jokes, don't tell jokes, have a straight face, are laughing all the time—it doesn't matter. The biggest thing that I want to encourage you with is to be yourself. Great selling is fundamentally built on trust, and if you've ever. encountered someone who's trying to be something that they're not, how visible is that to you? And even if you don't consciously think about that and go, that person's being fake, there's a, there's a little subconscious thing in your brain or in your gut that goes, um, that didn't feel quite right. And your clients are exactly the same. So I want you to lean into being you. Who are you, and how do you be you in a sales role or a sales set of tasks? Um, so that's the first thing. The second part is the same but different. Okay, so a lot of clients that I work with are introverted or, or are worried about what other people think. So yes, you've got to be yourself, but here's the second part: you've got to get over yourself. You've got to walk into meetings. You've got to pick up the phone. You've got to try these things. Sales is science, and that's some of what I'm going to share with you today, but it is also art. You don't become suddenly a great salesperson from listening to a masterclass or reading a book. You've You've got to get out there and try. You've got to learn in the face of your client what works for them. What are the things that they respond well to and what works for you? So it's in that combination of those 2 things that you learn the, the selling that really, really works for you, and it is there. You just need to be yourself. And get over yourself. The second thing that I often hear is, oh well, but you know, we have to do the right thing by the client and, and all of those sort of things. And look, absolutely, we do need to serve our clients. We do need to love them. But this isn't an attitude of servitude, so we are not in their debt. This is a great adult relationship where we've got clear rules of engagement. It's clear what, um, what we are asking of them, and it is also clear what they are asking of us. And our role in selling is often to work out what that service needs to look like and also work out if during, you know, the, the delivery of that product or service there's a problem, what would we like our clients to do. So it is a service, but it's a service built around you and your expertise and all the things that you know and love about what you do. And it's a service built around that customer. So if you're selling lots of products, um, or one-to-one, it is still your service and how you offer that and all the things that you do it's still built around your customer. If it's highly customized, then that's a one-on-one relationship. If it's more online, then that's built around a client avatar. But irrespective, you cannot be all things to all people. Seth Godin says this really beautifully. He says, people like us do things like this. So I want to challenge you and say, When you're in love with the service element of how you deliver both the sales and the delivery of what you do, then that is service. If you're feeling like you're being pulled away, or that the people are being— the people that you're serving are being unreasonable or rude, or just not getting it, then that's leaning more over to the servitude side. So that's a sign that something's wrong here. And what we have to do as our great, um, business advocates for our own business is go and talk to the client about that. Go and address the problem before it gets bigger. So we are not at the whim of our clients. We are here to serve them and love them and appreciate them, and they are here to love us and respect us and appreciate us. So this is an adult, you know, win-win relationship. This is not I win, you lose, or you lose. Anyway, you get my point. Everybody wins. One of the things that I look at, um, with the, the bigger clients that I work with is where does this value lie? So what value is your team getting out of working with these clients? What, what individual value? What's the team value? Then what do the clients get? And lastly, what does the community receive if we, if we all of that value up and think about it not just as a transactional value, but more an ongoing relationship. Probably a bit more like gardening, really. Thanks, Rhonda. Yes, exactly. Win-win. The third fear that I'm going to talk about with you today is about leading the dance and not being led. And to be honest, if I think about the biggest mistakes that I make people— I, I not make people, I see people make— one is the, um, you know, not being yourself. But this is the second biggest one. So, and unfortunately, particularly for women, so often what happens is, um, we're leading our clients along a journey and all of a sudden we stop. So think about it like this. You go to an event or, or a restaurant or a place somewhere, and they've got some music on, and you think, I'd like to dance, and you ask someone to dance. And they know that it's a waltz or a samba or whatever it is for you. And you start dancing and the music's going on and you're having a great conversation and dancing together. The music still goes on and you just stop. You just stopped dead. Not literally dead, but stop. The music's still going on. How does your partner feel? They feel confused. They feel like they've done something wrong. Um, and the same analogy is true of selling. So when you are selling to people, it is your job Nobody else's. Your job to lead that dance. So often when I say that to people, they go, oh, but Fran, that feels weird, and I don't want to be icky and sticky and pushy. Okay, I get that, and we can lead the dance in a beautiful, graceful way, but we need to take that lead. So here's a couple of things that you can do to help you feel non-pushy about it. The first thing is, um, I don't know whether you remember from those old movies and when people are learning to dance, they've got this piece of paper with some different colored footprints, um, and that's how they learn to dance. Well, We can do a similar thing. Imagine that you are interacting with a client for the first time. What do they need to know about you? Let's take a client walk through our business. How do we take that client from finding out about you, um, you finding out about them You offering a solution, them saying yes to you, and then what does the delivery look like? So that can be a really simple five six step process that you can have up on your website. You can use it in a sales meeting to keep you on track and to let the client know when the dance is beginning and and ending. And so here's a way. of saying it upfront. So you say— you would say to someone, thank you so much for meeting with me today. What we're going to do is I'm going to ask you a few questions about you and what you do and what problem you're trying to solve. After I get a better understanding of that, then I'm going to share with you how I think I might be able to help. And then once I've done that, we can discuss what next steps might look like. And then you can say simply, how does that sound? And now you've got a laid-out dance, and you've asked them to dance, and you've said, how does that sound? And they've said, great, thanks. And you're like, Oh, okay, now I have permission. So instead of being scared about when do I talk about money and when, when do I do this and when do I do that, now you've got it all laid out. Not only have you got it all laid out, you've asked this person to dance with you and they've agreed to that dance. So that takes some of the guesswork and the awkwardness out of it for you. And it also takes the guesswork and the awkwardness out of it for your client, because I don't know whether you've been in a buying situation before where you're thinking to yourself, oh, I wonder when they're actually going to get to the money part about how much this costs. So you know what, your clients are exactly the same. And so if you say we're gonna do this and this and this and this, and then we're gonna talk about the investment component, and then we'll decide whether, you know, this is something for you, or we'll talk about whether this is something for you or not. So now all of that anxiety about when this is gonna happen, what, you know, what's going on, we've cleared that all away. For those of you who have heard me talk before or have, um, read my book, you will know that I love the movie of, um, The Wizard of Oz. And so the analogy that I use throughout the book, but particularly around the client journey, is to think about your client as being Dorothy. They've gone through a storm, they've nearly lost their best friend Toto. They're now— they've gone from black and white to Technicolor. They're in a strange place, and she's 16, right? She's scared. So our first job in helping Dorothy just get off the porch isn't to tell her about flying monkeys. There's another witch who wants to kill her, that there is a wizard, but he's actually a fraud. Even though we know all of those things, our first job Is just to get her off the porch, and then to introduce her to the people of Oz, and then to introduce her to the concept of the Yellow Brick Road. But lastly, it isn't to push her down the Yellow Brick Road or even hold her hand to do that. This is her journey. It's the client's buying journey, but I am leading the dance. So I suggested that they take the Yellow Brick Road. and I'm there watching over and keeping her safe. So this is exactly what happens when you're in a beautiful sales methodology and sales process that's really focused on adding value, being of service, getting a win-win, leading the dance, being yourself, and I hope all of you who are listening today are nodding your head and going, oh my goodness, Fran, that sounds amazing. But sorry, there's no but. The but is this: all of this is possible, um, and all of this is, is there. You just need to have the courage, just like the Lion in The Wizard of Oz. You have to have the courage to put your next foot and your next foot and your next foot forward, and you will surprise yourself at how, um, at how you can do this better and how much better it feels when you know that whole process. And you don't have to take my word for it. Um, I, I love, um, my clients and working with them, and Lorraine was, was perfect. Um, so she talked about suddenly the words that I heard Fran saying about me and my business Suddenly that came naturally for me. I started seeing that, um, Kay talks about the experience and the enthusiasm and having a map and strategy. And let's be honest, when we're wanting to improve sales, sales are actually important. The actual end part of the process is important. Um, and, and Jody was able to use the tools that I gave her, and she approached 3 new wholesalers and signed 2 of them. So I— and these are just 3 examples— so I know that this works, and I know, um, that I can help you If, if I am given the opportunity to. So here's the things that I hear from people that I work with. Oh, I don't know what to charge. I don't think that people really value me. Oh, I hate picking up the phone. Or, you know, I don't want to be salesy. I'm great at what I do, and my clients really love me, but I don't seem to explain it in a way that people understand. Let's be honest, my revenue is not consistent, and when I look at that, I feel less confident to approach people. And here's the thing. And this is why I called my book More Sales Less Marketing. No amount of tweaking websites, freebies, Instas, downloads, etc. are gonna help you. Um, marketing is an essential and very important role. However, the reason I named my book More Sales Less Marketing was because I feel like people get too hung up on the marketing. And if what you need is sales, then what you need to have is conversations with clients. And that is not marketing, that is sales. And so, um, I've done lots of things over my last 15 years, but Something that I just opened up last month, uh, was my Accelerate Sales membership hub. So this is a monthly membership. Um, this month in June, we're working on getting clarity on your numbers, and there will be new themes coming out each month. As well as, um, as all of that, I've got cheat sheets script templates, a weekly live group coaching, um, that is also recorded if you're not able to make it live. Uh, you can ask me questions. There's a supportive community of other people who are on exactly the same journey as you. Um, and because it is so new, you get a say in shaping the future of what this looks like. So I've got, um, I had opened, uh, the doors of the membership for 2 weeks in May, from the middle to the end of May, and I was very excited to get 16 members. Um, and so I, I am very happy to help people, um, but I'm not going to be advertising or, or actively seeking new people. But if, if anyone who's listening to this masterclass would like to join me over in the membership hub, that would be fantastic. I would love that. So in the hub, what do we work on? First of all, I think it's about clarity. What are you selling? Who are you? But not just what are you selling, what are your, what are your clients actually buying from you and why? What, what motivates them to do that? And around these concepts of who and why and how, we do weekly coaching, and that's to, to help you understand that, but also to build skills around that. And these aren't sleazy tricks and ideas. This is all about being a community of— oh, I've got here purpose-led women. Fun fact, when I originally promoted it to women, and then I had a couple of guys approach me and say, what about us, Fran? I want to come in. And I thought, okay, Well, I had a look at my vision for what I'm doing in the world, and I have a theme song, which is I wanna teach the world to sell in perfect harmony. Sorry for singing, but the great thing about that mission and what that helped me realize was there are men in the world. And so I changed that to be Purpose-Led Founders. And here's what I know even so far, having had 2 coaching calls with my founding members, things are moving already and that makes me feel so excited and so proud. But I want people to stay because they love what, what I do. So I want to make it affordable for people. So $97 a month or $970 a year, and that includes GST for those of us in Australia. And you can cancel anytime. So there's no risk. So if you don't like what you're seeing and hearing inside the hub within 7 days of starting, just let me know, and there'll be a no-question-asked refund. 100%, no problem. If you pay, well, either monthly or annually, you can cancel at any time. So I'm not holding you in there with some, you know, sticky contract. I want you there because you're valuing what's going on. So I am going to close off the recording in a second, and I'm gonna open this up for some questions. And I just wanted to say thank you for listening, and thank you for being here. And I really look forward to helping you. So if there's anything that I've mentioned today, or that you think, oh, I wonder what Fran thinks about this, get in touch. I'm here. I'm happy to help. And yeah, I look forward to the whole world Selling in perfect harmony. Thank you. There we go.