Everyone knows the importance of sales and selling to boost your brand and build a successful business. But how can you achieve these goals without feeling overwhelmed or fearful? Connecting with your audience is crucial. Without an engaged client base, you have no business. Traditional sales strategies and tactics haven’t worked for some time – Why? Because the buyer is now KING!
So many of my clients come to me because they don’t understand how to sell in the now. They dislike selling themselves or their services, feel uneasy, lack confidence, and prefer to stay small than reach their potential.
What is sales?
In its simplest term, sales is a transaction between two parties for products or services. As a consumer, you understand that buying goods includes more than a physical exchange of money.
Your emotions drive your decisions.
Harvard professor Gerald Zaltman says 95% of your buying decisions are subconscious. Your sales strategy must, therefore, relate to the emotional aspects of your clients. They are far more informed than they’ve ever been and are up to 70% of their way through the buying journey before they even want to speak to a salesperson.
If you want your client to find, trust, and buy from you, you need to use five sales techniques to ensure you connect with your audience.
Ideal Client
Who is your dream client?
As your business grows and evolves, your ideal client may shift and change too. It is worth taking the time to think about your ideal client every six months to ensure you are still engaging with clients you want to work with.
In my book Live It Love It Sell It, I cover ideal client work in more detail. For now, let’s have a look at how you can identify who your ideal client is.
I talk about ‘stepping into their world’ all the time, which is vital if you want to connect authentically with your audience. To identify your ideal client, you must stand in their shoes. Answer the following questions as if you are one of your clients.
- What do you do for work?
- Where do you live?
- Do you have children/partners/animals?
- What do you do in your spare time?
- What products or services do you like?
- What puts you off buying?
- What are you really good at?
- What stops you from moving forward?
By digging deep into the who, what, where, when, and how of your ideal client, you can begin to engage with them in a language they appreciate.
Some of the questions are personal, and there is a reason for this. You want to understand everything about your ideal client, not just their buying habits. Looking at your client as a whole person enables you to sell to them thoughtfully and genuinely.
Listening
I talk about the buyer’s journey all the time in my blog posts, webinars, and coaching sessions, and that is because it is such an essential part of the sales process. The buyer is in control, and you need to understand them better. How do you do this? You listen!
There are five stages to listening: receiving, understanding, checking, and absorbing the message before transmitting a response. All of which happens in milliseconds.
If you want your client to know, like, and trust you (and ultimately buy), then you need to start listening to them.
You are all unique, with your own body language quirks, passions, and ‘isms’. To immerse yourself in the world of your ideal client, you need to pick up on all of this, from the tone of their voice to the way they use their body to express themselves.
Personal Stories
What’s your UHP – Unique Human Proposition®?
People buy people. You should now understand that your emotional wants and needs influence your buying decisions, and everyone craves human connection as part of that buyer’s journey.
But where does your personal story fit into your sales strategy? Your UHP® sets you apart from others because it focuses on your greatest asset – YOU! As an individual, no one in the world has what you have, no one has your stories, and nobody does what you do the way you do it.
Before you can understand what drives your clients, you need to understand what drives you. Taking time to reflect on your personal brand helps you present yourself and your business to the world in a truly unique way. Knowing your strengths, values, and stories presents you with opportunities to connect with your audience in many ways, such as website content, social media posts, podcasts, talks, or blogs.
The Price is Right
Be honest – when it comes to pricing for your business, either on a sales call or before hitting send on an email proposal, do you lack confidence and end up reducing your prices? Perhaps you worry that your potential client can’t afford you, or maybe your nerves get the better of you and you panic or trip over your tongue?
It is possible to feel empowered, play big, and confidently state your prices without any fear of rejection from a prospective client.
To eliminate all that self-doubt around your pricing structure and banish any negative thoughts to get paid what you deserve is an easy fix. One that allows you to win great clients who value you and your business.
To discover your unshakeable confidence and get paid what you deserve, I suggest you register to watch the replay of my latest Sales Webinar, The Price is Right.
Connect, Learn, Belong
Life skills are sales skills, and everything you learn in life becomes an essential part of your sales technique.
However, if you are a solopreneur, it might feel like an uphill battle to understand all the elements of your buyer’s journey, pricing your products or services, and owning your stories.
To help grow your business and learn the skills to connect with your ideal audience, it makes sense to involve yourself in a community of like-minded individuals with similar goals. Imagine how a business-related group could help your growth and development.
Accountability is the key to success. Sharing your highs and lows while learning new skills and collaborating with other businesses ensures you thrive. It provides you with an opportunity to connect, learn, and belong.
I want to invite you to join my high street community and reap the Live It Love It Sell It Experience benefits.
What next?
Join my Sales Academy and build on the five techniques you’ve learned in this post to connect with your audience. My article, 4 Reasons Why Joining a Membership Will Help Your Business Grow, gives you more information.
“I was gifted in meeting such a genius in sales, who shares my passion working on human connection and selling with integrity! In taking part in Jules’ recent programme, I was faced with changing an old outdated sales technique that no longer fitted with my own business. I had fallen out of love with sales, due to targets and ego driven Corporates I had sold ‘my soul to’. In that week, I found new alignment and upped my game. This led me to change my strategy! This was such a game changer for me. With my own business concept waiting for approval for Dragons Den, I will be turning to this slayer for guidance to its success!” Lucinda Harman, AXIM – South Africa
Join me in the Live it Love it Sell it Sales Academy for £47 a month (£360 per annum) and get all the support, resources, and community interaction you need.
Want to find out more? Schedule a virtual cuppa with me, and we can have a chat about the membership or my other coaching services.