Why You're Not Making Sales | Ep 74 | David Hulman

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People seem to forget if you change today, today will Change your life. 3, 2, 1. And we are live. Welcome to the next episode of the Self Believe Chief podcast. We're here with life and performance coach David Holman and today I want to talk a bit about sales or selling, because for a lot of people this is something that causes an incredible amount of stress. But we all sell in our everyday lives. We are selling ourselves to other people. And I've had a lot of trouble in the past in terms of being able to communicate the value that I knew I could provide people, the transformations I could create for people. But being able to get that across and communicate, that was very difficult. And I want to show you the only thing, the only thing that you really need to know when it comes to sales. On top of all the skills and the looping and the, you know, overcoming objections and all of this stuff, there's a fundamental ingredient that just simply doesn't get talked about enough. A number of years ago when I started my coaching coaching practice, I actually made a sale on my first ever conversation. So I have free discovery calls with people where they've scheduled a call with me to talk about coaching. I actually made a sale of the first of a call. I thought, well, this is easy. This is going to be a straight line of constant progress forever in A day. And the reality was that was not the case. As anyone who's gone through sales or selling, it's just never going to be the case. And we just go through these blips. And it actually took me another 40 phone conversations before I made another sale. And I thought, that can't happen. That's just, that's just not right. How am I fundamentally missing the point when it comes to being able to sell people when I knew I could help them? So taking that into consideration, I spent the next few years really just studying selling and sales and learning all the tips and tricks and, you know, how to understand and do all of this stuff. And I was trying to implement all of this stuff that I'd learned and I spent money working with people to try and get it and it just, it just wasn't working. I knew that once they were a client, I was making great progress with them and they loved what they were doing. But actually before that, bringing people through the door in the first place, I was really, really struggling. Really, really struggling. And so what happened was, according to a place where I was trying to learn so much about sales and I took the next step. I said, you know what, I'm going to do what I do when I want to fast track skill. I completely immersed myself. So at a three month period where I didn't listen or watch anything else or read anything else unless it's to do with sales for three months solidly, and the amount of progress I made in terms of my understanding of sales went up exponentially. In terms of the progress I made with actually selling clients, zero, nothing, absolutely no progress. So I was getting very frustrated and really, you know, how am I ever going to do this? And what comes to realize is I've worked with people now in terms of a performance side and helping them with their sales. Many people experiencing a lot of stress and a lot of struggle, whether a trainer or a coach or consultant or therapist or counselor, whatever it is, struggling to actually bring people through the door. And the stress that comes with that, it's like a vicious cycle. You know, you get more stress, you're trying to force it more and you're trying to make more sales and you try to convince people and it maybe comes across a bit more desperate and needy and then the other person feeds off that and they don't really want to work with someone like that. And you come across more as a salesperson than as the expert that you are. And that's key what I've just said, you come across as more of a salesperson than the expert you are. And see, it was a hard road for me to realise that. It was a hard road for me to really actually get that. So I made a sale of my first ever call and then all the stuff I'd learned in sales, it just didn't work again after that, after the first call, before the first call, I'd never done any sales training before. Then I started load, you know, I wanted to make even more sales and more sales. I started learning loads of, loads of all this sales tips and advice and, you know, whatever else. And all of a sudden I wasn't making any calls, as I've already said, wasn't making any sales. I thought, what on earth is going on? These people, these, these are experts and these people can't be wrong. It must be how I'm applying all of this stuff. And what happened was I had a conversation with someone, a potential client, and they spoke about they were struggling with love and relationships and they spoke to me and they said, I remember recently being in a dark room, being a dark room and feeling scared and vulnerable and how is my life ever going to improve? And it just doesn't feel like I deserve or I'm gonna get the happiness that I want. And for whatever reason on that day that really hit a nerve or felt it or everything changed. Because how he described that moment was a moment I'd been in, in the moment I got into coaching in the first place. And here's the key ingredient when it comes to sales, talking about who you were in the first place, what happens is we do all this sales training, we do all this stuff, become this, you know, version of a more professional version of ourselves, one that can make you all these more sales. And you need sales training. Everyone needs sales training to be able to understand how all of that stuff works. But what happens is when you try and apply it, it doesn't work. But when you just naturally do it, you're not thinking about it, you just do it, then that stuff starts to work. Now, how do you ever get to that place, apart from doing lots of sales training? You've got to bring a more important skill to the table. Something that I don't think enough sales experts talk about. See, when that person told me that, you know, that being in that dark room and that hit a nerve with me, what I did in that moment, literally in my chair, I lent back. And I remembered why I got into coaching. It was to serve people. And I lent back so I could listen. So I Wouldn't get involved or jump in too quickly or whatever. I just leant back and listened, and I lent back. And I remembered why I got into coaching. And from that pace of leaning back, not trying to make a sale, I was struggling financially. But I thought, you know what? I'm going to try and make the sale. I'm just gonna listen, I'm gonna serve, and we'll get on to the point. You know, if the conversation is moving the right way, then naturally, you know, it will fall into us working together. So I lent back, I listened, and I served, and we got to the end of the conversation. You know, I made the proposal, made the pitch, and I thought, it's probably not gonna work anyway. And they bit my hand off, and it was amazing. And I had. It been ages since I made a sale at that point, and they absolutely bit my hand off. I thought, huh, it's interesting. What happened in that week was I did exactly the same thing. I lent back, I served. I didn't try and sell. I served. Don't sell, serve. Okay, so you're listening and you're serving. You bring that value. And when you go from that place like I did, what happened with me was I would make three sales in one week, having not made a sale for however long. I made three sales in one week. I started to get. It didn't mean I was going to be able to work with everyone or sell everyone or that I'd want to work with everyone. But all of a sudden, I knew how to communicate my value. And it was a very simple thing. You talk about serving. What I do is I just went back to how did I feel when I watched that first video? That persuaded me that coaching was the thing for me. I watched a video by a guy called Les Brown, and I knew in that moment. And Joe Rogan spoke about this recently, where it's like when you find that thing, there's like an inner smile. It's like your soul is smiling. And that's exactly what it was. I watched this video by Les Brown. He said, it's not over until you win. And it changed my life forever. I brought that feeling back to the table when I was speaking to people because your clients or your customers want to be lit up. And if they want to be lit up, you have to light up. And if you want to light up, go back to that moment where you were lit up, when you first found this passion or interest or whatever it was, and you thought, yes, this is for me, go back to that place. Because if you can access that place, that passion, that enthusiasm, that desire to help people, and that's authentic, and you bring that to the table, that is more important than any single sales technique you'll be taught. Trust me. Save yourself years of not making sales by actually just serving. Go back to the place where you served. Get the sales training. Everyone needs sales training. But then what I always say is practice to be perfect and then perform with authenticity. Basically, what that means is when you're practicing by yourself or on your own or whatever, try and be absolutely perfect. But when you go and do it, just do it. Don't try and be perfect, because you won't be. And it will help that you aren't. Okay. When people seem perfect, people, you know, bit cynical and everything else, you won't be perfect. And that will work in your favor, but you'll just naturally do the things you've done in your training and your practice. If you want to sell, serve. If you want to know how to serve, go back to that moment when you first found this passion and desire to help people and bring that to every conversation. If you bring that to every conversation, you will light up your clients and customers, and when they fill it up, their belief and certainty in you will go through the roof. Okay, don't sell, serve. My name is David Holman. If you change today, today will change your life. So enjoy the rest of your day, Enjoy the rest of your life, and I'll speak to you on the next episode.