070. How to LOVE Making Offers and Selling

Welcome. I am marketing expert and business coach Melissa Kellogg Lueck. And this is the Doing Business Like a Woman podcast where we are exploring and teaching you how women are reinventing the way business is done and money is made to help you create greater impact and financial freedom one business at a time. Well, hello ladies. How are you? It's Melissa. I'm so glad you're here. Today I am recording this podcast. I have a little bit of a sore throat that I'm fighting, so I'm hoping my voice holds out. And we've got a blizzard going on outside and the kids are home from school. And so it's just one of those days. I hope your day is going really well. It's been an amazing day. Also, you know, it's the 5050 of life. Just some fun updates. I just found out today that I have been chosen as a contestant for a competition, a speaker competition for the greatest North American speaker or something. I'm not portraying it very well. Sorry. But I was have been chosen as one out of 10 people that will be. I applied to be chosen to be a part of the competition. So I've been chosen to be part of it. So it's very exciting. And so I'll be one of 10 women that will be competing here in Colorado. And then also, funny story, I was approached and have actually accepted an opportunity to be an influencer for the hair care products that I use. So I just thought that was so.

Fun I couldn't say no.

Like, I love the hair care products, the shampoo and that I and conditioner that I use and it's specifically made for aging hair. But we'll, you'll hear more about that later. But I just think it's so fun and let's see. So yes, what I want to talk to you about today, this is the fourth installment in our series during the month of February, all around love and marketing. And I know that this episode is not going to be released in February. However, I wanted to record it and release it still because it's so, so, so important and something I know that I have struggled with. I know many, many, many of you struggle with because I hear from you and I talk to you and it's all around loving making offers and selling. So most of us don't love making offers and selling, right? We're like, ick, how could I ever love that? I don't like it. I, you know, I even hear people say I hate it. I hate selling. It feels salesy. I don't like making offers. I don't like feeling pushy or I don't want to do it so much that my audience wants to leave me and hates me. It's going to delete me from their lives. So we have all those feelings. But on. On the other hand, we're like, well, if I don't go out and sell some stuff, this whole situation is of a business. It's not going to work. Right? Like, if I want this business to survive and make money, that's the purpose. One of the results of having a business, it's, you know, part of the definition of a business is an enterprise that makes money. Then I've got to make some sales and offers. Or this is basically just a. What we call a jobby. It's a hobby and a job that isn't doing anything other than not making money. Right? So that's the rub, right? We don't like it, but we know we have to do it. And so I am going to offer you, as I have been all during February. February, an opportunity to think about it in a completely different way. So everything changed for me around sales and around making offers when I decided that I wanted to make more money, that I needed to get over it and I needed to learn how to make offers and sell in a way that felt aligned for me. Right? Because that's the whole purpose. One of the whole purposes of breaking out on our own and starting our own business is that we want to be able to do things in our business and make money in a way that feels good to us. Right? So I was like, I have got to figure out a way that sales isn't going to feel disgusting, because if that's going to be the case, I'm never going to be good at it. Which makes total sense. Right? So I want you to know it's completely possible, and I'm going to teach you how today so you no longer have to choose to do icky things like sales and making icky offers when it comes to growing your business. So that is what I'm offering you today. Right. Are you in? Yes. Okay. So. So what I learned and after I made this decision, what I learned and what I put into practice has changed everything. And it all centers around and all begins from a different way of thinking about sales. And it's helped me to answer all the questions, like, how often do I make an offer? Right. I hear these questions all the time. What's the ratio that I should have in my marketing between free value and making offers? Or what is the script I should use. What is the exact process? Sales process I should use. And I mean, truthfully, my brain still wants all of these things, but when I connect back to what I'm going to teach you today, you just naturally and beautifully know all the answers and feels great. Okay? So how I like to think about sales and making offers has completely changed compared to, like, the early days of my business and the early years of my career. Early, early in my career, when I was just out of graduate school, I got my MBA in marketing at Hofstra University in New York. Whoop, whoop. And one of the first jobs that I had when I got out of school was working in Internet. In the Internet industry. Like, the Internet boom, which was super fun, but part of it was doing Internet software sales. And I worked for a company that was what we call an integrator, right? So they helped companies integrate the new Internet technology into their old legacy computer systems, right? And so we had software and solutions that would basically be the bridge between these big old companies, computers and technology and the Internet. That's kind of the best way I can describe it. Hopefully it makes sense. But anyway, I would have to do cool, cold calls. And I remember this, like, so distinctly. Like, I can. Even if I just put myself back in that office, I can, like, feel in my body just like, my stomach tensing up and just the heaviness, right? I used to have to make these cold calls to companies and ask them if they needed our help, right? And start creating connections. And it was awful, and it was really hard, and I didn't like it. And so comparing that to where I am now is completely different. And it's all come as a result of changing how I think about sales and what sales and making offers means to me and my business now. So first I think we have to become rooted to, like, the depths of our soul, which I feel like I am. I'm rooted to the depth of my soul. I know that I can help my best fit client. Like, I'm very confident in that. Not to say I know everything. I can help every single everyone with everything. That's not what I'm saying. But for the client that I am best suited to serve and to help, I know without a shadow of a doubt that I can help her grow and market her business and make money on her terms so she can have a life, right? I know it. I know it because I've been, you know, helping businesses for the last 18 years do this. I know it because I've done it for myself. In my business, I know that I have all of the tools, skills, knowledge, experience to help my best fit client. And yes, obviously my clients have to actually do work also. I can't create a result against their.

Will for them, right?

But if they're in and I'm in, I know that I can bring everything to the table that they need to help them, right? To help them be successful. And so I. That's like the first step, like becoming rooted in that knowledge, that confidence for yourself that you can help somebody. It doesn't have to be everybody and it doesn't have to be helping people against their will. But those that are best suited, best fit for you, your best fit client, you know, you can help them at least with something, right? That's why you went into business. So just like, if you sit in that and root yourself in that, it just gives you this feeling like, yes, I can. And then from there, when I like to think about making an offer or selling to a client is actually part of the value that I offer her, right? So I think about it like this. Like, if I have what she needs or wants to solve her problem, if I have what it takes to get her what she most wants, it's actually a disservice for me to not make an offer to her, right? To not say, I can help you. So I like to think about it like this. So say, for example, I go to the doctor and I'm airing some of my dirty laundry here because truthfully, I need to make an appointment with my doctor. I'm 51 years old and I'm having lots of hormonal changes. Not a big surprise, anybody. And I'm not sleeping well. I'm a little fluffy around the middle, and I need to see my doctor about it, right? So say I go to my doctor and I tell her about my symptoms. Like, I'm not sleeping well. I'm feeling like. Feeling like nothing that I used to work for me, works for me in getting fit and taking care of my body. And so I tell her all about my symptoms and she asks me questions like, so tell me about this or what about that? And she goes through that whole process of discovering and what's going on with me and my body. And then she says, okay, I can, you know, this is what I'll. I'll do for you. I will, you know, prescribe this for you. I will help you do this. And we'll take these tests and then we'll have these answers and we'll know exactly how we're going to move forward or whatever. So she puts together a whole plan of how she can help me. And then she says, it was so nice to get to talk to you. I'm so glad you came by today. And then leaves the room and never says, when would you like to get started? Or do you want to move forward? Or making that offer? Like, I can help you with this. Do you want to work with me? Right. Like, a doctor would never do that. That would just be such a disservice. It like, goes against their. The Hippocratic oath, right? So, you know, how can you think about the. What you offer in the same way, right? That, you know, if you're rooted in. In the fact that you can help someone with something, you can help them get what they want and solve their problem, then it's actually a disservice if you have the opportunity and you don't. Right? So that's how I think about making an offer and having sales conversations. It's part of the way that I serve my best fit clients, the way I serve my audience, the way I serve people that I meet out and about. Right. And. And the way I serve you too. Right. My podcast audience. And so next, then we have to begin to see making an offer or having a sales conversation as a service to our client and that we are collaborating with them to get what they most want or to solve their problem. And I feel like this is so different than, like, all the sales training that I did back in the early days of my career, like I was telling you about when I was selling software and services, Internet services. And what I learned then was more of the masculine view of sales. And so I feel like for us as women that can feel that that type of selling can feel very combative. And that's not how many of us want to run our businesses. Right? So it, you know, just even in the terminology like getting the clothes or winning the sale or closing the deal or overcoming the objections, it's all very combative. So what I suggest is that we think about it like we are on the same team with the client. We're on the same side of the table. We're sitting next to her, not across the table from her. And I'm going to offer up to her what I know I can help her with, and I'm going to advocate for her for her highest self and help her to make the best decision, whether or not she hires me or not. Like, I seriously care most about my clients and their businesses and the decisions that they're making more than I care about, you know, closing the deal and winning the sale and, like, duping someone into working with me. Right. And I feel like when I changed my way of thinking about sales with that spirit in mind, that more collaborative spirit, it's changed everything for me, like, not needing to have a script or, you know, my magic sales script or a magic sales process or a sentence that's going to dupe people in to buying from me. And so even this notion of creating a highly emotional sales process, like, I've seen this going around and where people have started using, I feel like it's a lot of emotional manipulation to get people to buy. And it feels icky to me. And I've seen this from women. I think this is maybe the kind of the female version of the, you know, closing the deal type thing. And so I've seen women do this. I've been a victim of it myself. And it doesn't feel good to me. And as a client, it doesn't feel good even. And as a business owner, as someone going out and selling my services in the world, I don't want to do it like that because I don't like the way it feels. So, you know, we all can be our own judge. But I think really going back to how does this process that I'm creating, this relationship that I'm creating with this other human, how does it feel in my body? Right. Really letting that be your guide a lot of times. And, you know, you can share your why and help clients to connect with their why and talk about the results that you're offering and what achieving those results would feel like. But I think there's a line that some folks I've seen will cross, and it goes a little too far for me. But that's just my soapbox. Okay. I'm coming down off of it. But with that spirit of collaboration, of really thinking of sales and making offers as a service, as a value to my clients, this is a sales process that I have. I like to, like, go back to the doctor analogy. And I like to run my consultations kind of like a doctor would run a meeting with a patient. I will. I love to ask questions and, you know, tell me about how, what's going on, listen to the situation. Then I'll put together, you know, bring out the parts, the important parts that I see and, you know, get an idea of what the client really wants to achieve, what they most want, and I'll pull out what I'm seeing and then put that together. As like a. I'm using air quotes here diagnosis, like what I see, what's going on, what might be the issue or the issues, and then create a plan together of what best serves the client. And then ask them if that's how they want to move forward, if this is what they want, if they think this is going to work for them. And then inevitably, you know, I will ask them what they think, how they're feeling about this as an option, and then we explore those questions, those open loops, and really in a very collaborative way so that they feel comfortable that they can bring up what they're thinking. Maybe they're thinking, I'm not sure if this solution you're offering is going to work for me. And so. And that's fine. Like, let's just talk about. Bring it all out on the table. Because at the end of the day, I want my sales conversations and a client saying yes to me to be the best decision for them, the right decision for them at that point, and for them to feel really great about it. But if you've ever been in a sales situation where you didn't feel great about it at the end, you know that, you know the power of feeling like you've got duped or talked into something, it just feels awful. And I never want anyone that I work with or talk to or meet with to feel that way. So I never want to again run my sales conversations or sales calls in a way that is not completely in service of the client, of the person on the conversation with me. Right. So thinking of making offers and having sales conversations as the way that you serve your best fit clients, how would.

You want to make offers or change the way that you make offers? Do you want to adjust your sales process or how you approach sales conversations? The results of shifting your thinking and answering these questions for me has been that doing this work has been that I'm no longer terrified to get on a consultation call or have a sales conversation or talk about or make an.

Offer or talk about the work I do.

I'm so excited to. I feel so much more excited. I mean, you know, I don't feel excited all the time, I guess, but for the most part, I am excited to meet and hear from and serve another entrepreneur. I never have to feel like I duped anyone. Like, I love being in this place of service because I'm not trying to talk them into anything. I'm not trying to dupe them or close the sale.

Right.

I feel like I always know what to say and I don't have to.

Have a script.

When I take the time and the intention to connect to my heart and my why. And I feel much less awkward in having these conversation, sales conversations or making offers. I don't find myself as much like it still happens, right. It's, it's a well worn pathway in my brain. But I feel awkward much less of the time.

I.

Have a much easier time talking and making offers. I feel so much less pressure on myself.

To have the script or say the right words.

Right. Like we have this misconception that we can say the right words and someone will buy from us, but it has so much less to do with the words that we're saying and has so much more to do with us being aligned, being integrity and that energy of service and love coming through.

Right.

And you can always kind of feel that when you're, when you're the one being sold to. Have you ever experienced that, that you get like this suspicious kind of salesy vibe and it, it automatic automatically makes me want to just kind of pull back and question everything a little bit more because I kind of rebel against it. I guess so because I'm feeling so much less pressure on myself. I'm connected with love and service for my clients. I have ended up attracting so much more business with a much smaller audience than I, than in other sales type positions and corporate and so forth. And I am attracting clients that are. And business that is such a great, much more, such a much better fit for me and the work that I do. And so this is work that I absolutely love doing with my clients and I do this in much more depth in private coaching with them and I've seen it transform their success and their closing rates and of course that brings.

In more revenue over and over. Right.

So.

So if this is work that you.

Would like to explore with me and just talk about and see what we.

Could do for you and your business.

Feel free to reach out to me. I do have a couple openings for private coaching clients right now and I'd.

Love to see how I could help.

You if it sounds like something you're interested in. So you can always visit my website, melissam Kellogg.com and there's a link right there on a home on the homepage to check my calendar and book a call and we'll just chat, right?

Okay.

That's what I have for you today my friends. So in the meantime, I hope you have a fabulous day and I will see you next time.

Bye. If you like this podcast, then you have got to sign up for my free on demand video training, Grow youw Sales Doing what yout Love, Where I teach you in depth my simple process that you can implement right away to harness your mindset and your skills to grow your sales to whatever level you want. So go grab that now. The link is in the show notes and I'll see you next time.