In this 13‑minute presentation Frances Pratt of Kiss to Sell addresses a non‑sales audience at Servcorp’s Business Shorts event, arguing that sales is not a dirty, manipulative activity but a service‑oriented process of helping people buy. She begins by emphasizing the importance of a mindset shift: view yourself as a helper rather than a seller, which changes tone, confidence, and authenticity. Pratt illustrates the customer buying journey with a simple “thirst” analogy, breaking it into need identification, option weighing, risk assessment, decision, negotiation, implementation, and post‑purchase reflection, and stresses that salespeople must align with the buyer’s stage. She debunks the myth that decisions are purely logical, showing that emotions drive choices and are later rationalized, and highlights the role of storytelling to engage those emotions. The talk contrasts “old, yucky selling” (pushy presentations, forced closing) with a newer relationship‑focused approach that starts with listening, understanding, fit assessment, honest objection handling, and value creation. Practical tactics follow: ask probing questions to uncover client pains, use client‑centric stories, obtain explicit permission for follow‑up calls (“Can I call you Thursday?”), and maintain consistent, value‑adding contact through thank‑you notes, LinkedIn, or other channels. Finally, Pratt urges attendees to normalize sales in daily life by practicing the two‑to‑three takeaways with partners, colleagues, or in everyday negotiations, reinforcing the mindset shift through repetition.
Chapters
Hi, I'm Frances Pratt from Kiss to Sell, here at Servcorp Business Shorts to do a presentation for a fantastic group of people. Really looking forward to it. One of the things that Kiss to Sell focuses on, it's really sales for non-salespeople, or as I like to say, sales for people who hate selling. So we're going to be focusing on helping people buy Because as I was saying to someone tonight, the first thing you've got to work on from a sales context is your mindset. So if you think, I'm going in to sell these people stuff, and that makes you feel awkward, then the first thing you're going to do is come across as being awkward. Whereas if you go in thinking, I'm going to help these people buy something that's great for their business or great for themselves, depending on what you're selling, Then your whole attitude and the way you listen and present yourself is going to be completely different. So then once you've got someone interested, oh my God, now what do we do? So I'm going to give you some tips on that and implementing some simple things into your daily work life and how you do that, because sales isn't a dirty word. It doesn't even have 4 letters, it's got 5. So we just—I want you to feel a little bit more comfortable about sales and selling, and that's my goal. And questions—I love questions—and the harder the better. Mindset. So I started on this a little earlier. It's really about helping people buy. So don't think that selling is manipulating. And selling is trying to con people out of their money and make them buy something that they don't want. If you think about a great sales experience that you've had as a customer, lots of people go, I've never had one, because they don't think about it as being sold to, they think about it as buying something. Oh, they were really helpful, they helped me find the right thing, whatever it was. So if you think about that mindset in reverse, if you're there honestly to help people, and sometimes that's to To say to them, no, don't buy from me because it's actually not the right thing, or they've come in for one thing and actually what they need is something completely different. So it's about honesty and transparency. So the reason that's really important for you is because it allows you to look and feel honest and comfortable with what you're saying. And I wrote an article recently called Sales: It's a Con, and it is. In the sense that the original word con comes from confidence, and the reason con men and women are great at what they do is because they instill confidence in you. So I'm not suggesting that you all become con artists, but what I'm saying is let's learn from them and instill confidence into what we're doing, because that confidence comes across. To everybody that you talk to. The reason it works for them is because when you're yourself and you're being confident and you're honestly there to help them, that comes across to them and they relax. They think, oh, thank God, they're not here to sell me something. They're here to talk about my problem. They're here to understand my business. They're here to understand me a little bit more so that they can help me. So, is that hard to see? No. So I just want to go through how people buy, and I'm going to do something really, really simple, but the process is the same. It's just longer and shorter depending on how tricky the situation is. So just imagine you're thirsty. Well, you've all been in the bar, but anyway, just imagine. So the first thing you do is you go, oh, I'm thirsty. That's determining your needs. And then you go, well, what do I want to drink? I should have water, that's better for me, but I really feel like, you know, something with sugar in it, but I know that's bad, you know. So you weigh all this up and then you think about the risk. If I have something sugary, then I know I'm going to feel bad, but I could go to the gym this afternoon and then I could do this. And so you have this massive debate in your head. Finally, you make a decision and then you negotiate. You say, okay, well, I'm going to have water. I'm going to have a piece of fruit. But am I going to have it with ice in it? Am I going to go down and buy a bottle of water? Am I just going to get something from the tap? Even once you've made a decision, there's lots of things going on in your head. And then you implement it. You have that drink. And then you go, was that the right thing to do? Next time— how many times have you said that? Next time I'll just have water. I know that's better for me. So, and this is exactly the same process. That your customers will go through when they buy from you. So just think about that. When you're— if you're going to help people buy, then you need to understand where they are in that process and help them go through that. So it's not about you and your timing, it's about them and theirs and what their needs and requirements are. So number one thing, please listen. So many people go in and say, I'm gonna give a sales presentation, and I go, stop! Don't you dare. Don't you dare go and give a sales presentation until you know who that person is. Who are they? What do they want? What did they have for breakfast this morning? You know, what keeps them up at night? What are the things that they really want to solve? What are the top 3 problems in their life? Their business today. So if you seek first to understand, then you can talk about what you do and frame it around what that person really wants, around where their pains and/or gains are in their business. Now, I'm sure you all think that people buy logically. That is the big Biggest load of they don't. Everybody buys emotionally, men and women. So all those beautiful logical thinkers out there, I love you all, but you all buy emotionally. And the best way to test that is if I said to you, you don't all have to answer, but if I said to you, who did you vote for in the latest federal election? If you told me, you'd say it's such and such, and you'd have three. 3 really logical, beautiful reasons. It was the NBN, it was the border protection, it was whatever, whatever, whatever. And then if I said to you, well, why didn't you vote for the other person? Then I get the emotion. Because we don't surround our opposite in, in the logic. We don't, we don't think that's necessary because people don't ask us that question. So, So people will say things like, oh, I don't trust him, and he never did what he said he was going to do, or, you know, he just doesn't come across the right way. I don't feel right about him. There you get the real emotion. So actually, people make decisions emotionally and then they wrap it in logic. So your clients will do exactly the same thing. And that's why it's so And important to understand the emotional state of your client. this is why storytelling is so important. I love stories, you might have noticed. But I love storytelling because it's engaging. And we've told stories to our little children for a very long time for a really good reason, because they get emotionally involved in them. And if you have some great stories about you and your business, then that invites your clients to get emotionally involved with you as well. And that emotion is the core to connection and to relationships that allow people to buy. So we've all— just a bit of a summary about old selling. So old yucky selling is about I just come and tell you what I do. I expect you to buy from me. I handle— get rid of any objections out of the way. And then I negotiate. And then I'm always closing. Close, close, close. The business is more important than anybody else. So that's yucky selling. The new way of selling doesn't start or end, um, at one point or another because it's about relationships. So we start by listening, we start by understanding, then we look for fit. Mm-hmm. We find a way that we can fit, and sometimes it's being honest and saying, Oh, I don't see a fit here. We look for objections. We look for reasons that— emotional reasons or, you know, perceived risks that people might not want to buy from us. And we always look to create value. And what that means is you're always looking for the win-win. If you're truly creating value for your clients and for the people who come and buy from you and work with you, then they're going to want to come back because they value what you're doing. Okay, now we've listened, we understand what our clients want, it's all fantastic. Now what? Now you've got to talk about yourself without feeling like a show-off, and that's really hard. I find it easy, but I know I'm good. You're a show-off. I'm so shy. But the really important thing is to be yourself. And if you're not a boastful, out-there person, then don't be that. And the other thing to do is to use stories. I use lots of stories about my clients. My clients did this, my clients did that. I had a client with a similar problem to you. What happened? Yeah, I love that. The end was this and this and this. There's a beginning, a middle, and an end. It's a nice little story. Now, the reason you tell stories about your client— for you, it's easier than talking about yourself. You don't feel like you're talking about you because you're talking about your client, so it's easier for you. Because it's easier for you, we go back right to the beginning and think about mindset. Your mindset's in the right place because you're remembering helping this client and how they felt at the end of that and how much impact you had on their business and all the good things that happened. So you feel positive, so that comes across to this potential client, and you're telling them a story and they get involved in that story. And so they think— I think about it, you're gonna laugh, well, I hope you do— like Dorothy on the Yellow Brick Road. So she took the The Tin Man and the Scarecrow and the Lion. Thank you. I was gonna go, oh my God, here's my story and I've lost it. Can you sing the theme song? Yeah, um, but she took them along. She didn't promise them anything that she couldn't deliver. She told them why she was going. She told them what she was trying to achieve, and they came along On the yellow brick road, and that's all you're doing by telling stories. Um, WIIFM. Everybody in the whole world listens to this radio station. It's called What's In It For Me. So if you just talk about yourself without relating it back to what you've heard that your client wants, they'll turn off. And the best case example, if anyone knows any teenagers, they're excellent at this because the minute you start talking about things that aren't relevant to them, they turn off. So yes, go and practice on teenagers. Good. Okay, you've got someone interested. That is fantastic. And I know you've been at networking events, you've talked, oh yes, I'll give you a call. Please do it. Please take those business cards, please match yourselves up on LinkedIn or whatever social media, please send them an email, please send them a card. I don't care, send them a carrier pigeon, but it's your job to contact them. If you're trying to create a relationship with them, it's your job to contact them, not the other way around. I always say to my salespeople that I'm coaching, your clients do not have numbers on their phones. They can't call you, so don't go, "Oh, I can't do that." Just call, call, call, call. And one little tip on how to do that nicely and in a way that makes you feel less awkward is set up a time. I'm going to call you on Thursday. Is that okay? They give you permission, or they say, "Thursday's terrible. I'm out all day. Why don't you make it Friday?" Friday morning. Great. So they give you permission and then suddenly when it comes to Friday— and please put it in your diary— but when it comes to Friday morning, the thought of picking up the phone goes from, oh, they're going to think I'm stalking them and that I'm pushing stuff. No, no, no. You've got permission. You've got permission. And again, we're back to mindset. Now that you've got permission, you can pick up the phone, you sound better, you come across better, and And you can actually get what you need. So yes, connect, connect, connect. Send them a thank you card, look out for them at other events, find ways of connecting that are meaningful. Okay, implementation. People go to these talks all the time and they go, yeah, that's a good idea. Ideas get nowhere. So what I want you all to do is I want you to go and talk to other people about sales and selling. Not in a disgusting, revolting way, but in— I want you to take 2 or 3 things that you've learned tonight and go and talk to the other people in your business. Go and talk to your partner tonight when you get home. Go and make sales a normal part of life, because it is. We've all been for job interviews. We've all negotiated with the bank manager. We've all negotiated to go to the restaurant that we want to go to or the movie that we want to see. That's selling. So don't make it icky and yucky. Start normalizing it in your life. So if you start talking about it all the time, then you're normalizing it for yourself and you're getting that mindset right. And you've got to do it daily and make it easy for yourself. Yeah, I think that's a really good point. Get permission.
