How To Sell With Love

For the past couple of months, I’ve been gobbling up everything I can find about Sales processes. Because as I go on this coaching journey, I realize it’s an integral part of my business.

After all, it is a business, right?

But, “sales” often has a bad reputation in the coaching/consulting industry. People like you and me, who hate sleazy, on-the-face messaging, often run away from it and are sometimes even terrified of it.

So in this week’s newsletter, I wanted to focus on one of Rich Litvin’s (author of The Prosperous Coach) processes to humanize sales and sell with love.

Earlier this week, I watched a mind-blowing episode where he talked about the 5 stages of Selling With Love, and I could not wait to share it here because it was beautiful.

And I thought you ought to know about it.

So if you’re a coach/consultant, here are 5 stages of selling you need to keep in mind to get excellent results over time:

Step 1: Selling to yourself

Do you believe in what you do enough that you’re excited to tell people about it? That you don’t stop whether the other party is interested or not, but you keep going?

Rich explains that when you bring that kind of excitement to your work, people automatically trust you. You end up sharing that infectious energy with the other person without realizing.

If you’re bogged down by imposter syndrome, realize it’s normal. Stop trying to get rid of it and get good at it.

Because 99.9% of you did not start a coaching business directly with a degree - before shifting to this, you’ve held other positions in your life for 5, 10, 15, or even 20 years. It could be in a corporate, startup, entrepreneurial, or even family life.

You’ve done all sorts of extraordinary things before. Tap into them. Become aware of them. Because you’re not a beginner, remember that. Own who you are.

Bring all that passion, learning, excitement, and more into the way you share your work with others. You cannot go to the next step without this one.

Step 2: Selling in a conversation

It’s that simple. Don’t overcomplicate it.

The basis of your coaching/consulting business is meeting interesting people because, well, it’s a people-centric o.t?

Become part of communities, and be open to meeting new people online/in real life. Introduce yourself and have conversations. If, at any point, you feel like they might need your help, ask the above question.

Not because you want to make a sale but because you genuinely want to help them.

If they say yes, give your all. Don’t leave anything on the table. Serve them powerfully, so much that they’lnever forgeter you. Irrespective of whether they agree to work with you or not.

Step 3: The actual proposal

Your first call goeexceptionallyly well. You helped the person through the transformation. Now what?

This is where you inform people that your coaching costs XYZ, the package, and the logistics. Rich Litvin again has a wonderful video called the Art of Proposal (see here)

The biggest mistake most beginner coaches/consultants make at this point? They don’t even fathom that someone would be ready to work with them! And they’re noprepareddy.

A couple of things can happen here, and here’s how to handle each of them:

• They directly say that they’re not interested.Let them go. If they’re not right for you, they aren’t.

• They are interested but cannot get your coaching now because of circumstances - time or money.Give them space because it’s the best thing you can do. Remember that you’ve been in the same position sometime in your life too. Respect them.You can either offer them other options or ask them to save up and get back to you when they’re ready.

• They ask you to send a proposal with the details and never respond. Basically, ghost you.Again, they don’t matter. But at least now you know what kind of folks to stay away from.

• You procrastinate on sending the proposal to them and lose the opportunity.That’s your fear pulling you back. This is why Step 1 is so important. You need to be passionate and excited to show people what you do.

• They say, “Done! I’m in!” - either during the call or a few days later.Test the yes (for when they agree in the call) - When people say they’re in, ask them, “Are you sure? Do you have someone you need to talk to? Do you want to take time?”Then tell them you’ll get back to them in a day or two. You can ask them to pay if it’s a “hell yes” from both sides.Why? This is so that both of you won’t regret it later. Because, as humans, we are impulsive beings. Coaching/consulting ia highlyly personal process and the decision should never be taken on impulse. Both parties should be 100% ready.

Step 4: Sale to their partner

Most coaching decisions aren’t taken by one person. There’s always a husband/wife/business partner or any other person involv because this becomes a crucial financial investment.You need to acknowledge and respect that.

So the person needs to knopreciselyly how you’re gonna serve them so that not only they’re convinced because you coached them powerfully, but they’re also able to talk about it confidently to their family.

The best way to do this is to make it ultra-clear after the call and include the points in the proposal.

Step 5: Buyer’s remorse

Sometimes your client might purchase your high-ticket coaching and go into an overthinking spiral of, “Oh, what the fuck have I done? I’ve spent so much mon; willll I get anything in return? What if the sessions aren’t good enough?”Yes, you need to focus on this stage too. And give them a safe, non-judgemental platform to open up about this to you.

• Ask them to scan for things that look like coincidences, but they’re actually not. Why does this happen? Because once we take responsibility for ourselves, the universe has a weird way of rewarding us.I see this all the fucking time. So remind them of these opportunities knocking at their doors.

• Investing in yourself is scary. Because you’re taking the plunge, there’ll be no one to blame other than you. Ask them to segregate between fear and their gut feeli becausese both are 2 different feelings. Fear is good. It pushes you to do great things and kick the pedal. They would not have taken it on if their gut feeling weren’t right.

• If they really want an out, again, let them go respectfully.

I fell in love with this process because it opened my eyes to multiple new perspectives, and I could relate to it so much.

When I started working with a coach for my business this month, I went through the same process of talking with my husband and having slight buyer remorse (which went away the next day).

We had to shuffle our budget, because no one usually has money lying around for coaching, right?

If we go through all these feelings while making a big purchase, why won’t others go through the same thing?

I truly hope these 5 steps help you get the clients you always dreamed of!

I’m going to save my personal ramblings for next week, because this letter was long enough and I want to let you go:)

See you next week!Shruthi