Confidence Equals Profits

Business Going a Bit Slow?

As an entrepreneur, your job is to create magical things on this earth, and then share them with the people who would benefit from them. And by “share them with,” I mean “sell them to.”

Sales is one of those tricky subjects that some people love and other people tend to hide from.

But the “build it and they will come” marketing plan rarely works.

So how do you get people to buy your stuff if you hate selling?

First, you have to start by reframing the idea of what “selling” is.

Nobody likes a pushy used car salesman. But used car salesmen still make a living. How?

Confidence.

Confidence is one of the main differentiating factors between a successful person and an unsuccessful person.

Think about some of the most confident people you know.

You might not even like them, but somehow they manage to get a bunch of people to follow them, buy from them, and/or admire them, just by talking.

And it isn’t the words that they say that actually matter all that much.

It is how they say them.

I’m not telling you to go learn how to be a cocky narcissist.

But I am telling you that you’re going to have to learn how to speak (or write!) with confidence if you want to be a successful entrepreneur.

Learning Confidence

Some people are born confident (lucky them). But most of us have to earn it.

The easiest way to gain confidence is through experience. Unfortunately, this isn’t the fastest way to learn, though.

So to speed things up, try clarity.

Think about it - if you are trying to sell your services to people, but you don’t know exactly what your package includes, or how much it costs, or how long it will take, or what the end result for the client will be, how confident do you think that you’ll sound when you are telling them about it?

I envision a lot of “um’s” and “uh’s” in your future.

But if you take some time to fully flesh out you main offering(s), understanding exactly who they are for, what they do, and how much they cost, you’ll be able to present them so much better.

The person you are talking to will feel much more confident that you’ll be able to deliver, even if it is a new product or your first time offering it.

Need to Know

Here are the things you need to know about what you offer:

1. What, exactly, you offer. Just because you are a Jack of all trades doesn’t mean that you sell all of those services. Pick your top 2-3 for starters, and dig in deep on those. You can always pull your other talents out of your back pocket if you need to give someone an extra little push to say yes later.
   
   So know what your coaching package includes, or figure out how many cookies come in your medium-sized package. Don’t start the conversation with this information (lead with the benefits, not the features), but you can’t answer the rest of these questions until you know this information.

2. Who it is for. As they say, “If you try to please everyone, you’ll end up pleasing no one.” You can choose to niche down in one of two ways:

   1. Your ideal client - This niching style has you choose one type of person (dentists, guitarists, working moms) and then create a variety of services or products to meet a variety of their needs.

   2. The thing you love to do - Instead of figuring out a bunch of ways to help one type of person, you can instead choose to do one thing really well (facebook ads, copywriting, underwater basket weaving) and figure out how a variety of people can benefit from that thing.

3. What is the end result they can expect. Deep down inside, people don’t really care about exactly how many bells and whistles your widget has, or how many modules your course contains. First, they care if they can get the result they want. Next they care about how long it takes. And then they care about price. But price matters least of the three, as long as the result and timeframe are convincing enough.
   
   So think about who your ideal customer wants to become. How would they feel after they buy your thing and implement it? If they don’t take action, what does being stuck feel like? What are they afraid of?
   
   Don’t just think about the facts. Think about their feelings as well.

4. What words are they using to talk about their problem and your solution? The more your potential client can hear their own words during your sales process, the more they will feel like you actually “get” them. Plus, doing the research that it takes to figure those words and phrases out will help you understand your market much more deeply, which in turn ups your confidence because you know exactly what you’re talking about.
   
   Include these words and phrases in your website copy, your emails, your phone calls, your product descriptions, and in your conversations.

These things may seem basic, but you’d be surprised how many entrepreneurs (even seasoned ones) haven’t fully thought these questions through. Write down your answers, and use that information throughout your sales process.

I’m confident that it will help.