TBSF 016 | Entrepreneur Insights | Never To Have To Sell Yourself

It breaks my heart how many would-be entrepreneurs never get started because they don’t like the idea of marketing and sales.

If you constantly worry about having to sell yourself in order to be successful in business, this podcast is for you, as I’ll reveal how you can never have to sell yourself ever again.

TBSF 016 | Entrepreneurial Insights | Never Have To Sell Yourself Again [ 11:58 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

And Even If You CAN Sell Yourself…

I also cover the single mistake most self-employed and freelance service providers make, that almost guarantees they’ll always have to struggle for money regardless of whether they can sell themselves or not.

One of my favourite sayings is this…

“If your marketing is good enough, it makes selling completely superfluous”

However, many people don’t know the difference between marketing and selling and that difference becomes even more murky when selling online. But it’s well worth your while learning the difference and all about attraction marketing in particular, then you will realise that you won’t ever have to go out and sell yourself, your product or service, again.

So How Do You Go About Not Having To Sell Yourself, Ever Again?

“Ooooooh,” you may say, “I could NEVER be good at marketing, I’m just not that sort of person. I’m just not pushy enough. I don’t want to have to sell myself OR market myself, I just want to do what I’m good at”.

Well, I am not going to try to turn you into a marketeer or a salesperson – but will you open your mind (just a chink!) to the possibility that you CAN stay just as you are, not have to sell yourself hard but STILL be more successful at what you do?

Marketing and sales are often inextricably linked in most people’s mind and “everyone knows” sales people are scuzz-bags – right? The very words “marketing” and “sales” conjures up images of people being brainwashed by ads and parted from their money, in exchange for something they don’t want. By people in dodgy suits!

Well, the first concept to get your head around, is that people are generally very sophisticated and astute.

You cannot generally sell people something they don’t want, no matter how heavy handed your tactics. So it follows that you can’t sell yourself, you can only encourage people to buy from you, by providing what they want or need.

And generally, even by very clever marketing, you cannot persuade or brainwash people into wanting something, that they hadn’t wanted before. You couldn’t massage someone who didn’t want it, could you? If I didn’t need a car (or want a sexier one), you couldn’t sell me a car, could you?

How would it be if we started thinking of marketing as the art of letting people know about an idea, solution, product or service that they already want, but didn’t know where to go or which one to choose.

How would it be if we made our service so good, so excellent, that if WE were introduced to it, we would be DELIGHTED to be told about that service. How about, instead of thinking about having to sell yourself, you started thinking of marketing as simply making sure that your excellent product or service is not being kept a secret?

What about the sales part of the process? The dreaded “closing” that everyone seems to find so hard.

What is a “close”, anyway? It’s actually just asking someone if – having been recommended, having voiced their needs, knowing your prices or fees, having been reassured that you can help – you ask them if they would like to book an appointment. Offering an appointment on a Tuesday or a Thursday is an “alternative close”.

Technical stuff, eh?

So marketing is about not being a secret, and selling is about making an appointment. Easy – we can do that! But what if we could make it even easier? Have I got your interest?

How do we go about “not being a secret”? It’s not even about selling yourself effectively because most of the time, most people don’t even know you are there, you’re being so much of a secret.

The traditional ways to market anything are by creating a brochure, business cards and letterhead, advertising, mailing out to prospective purchasers (or clients) and selling your services to them. An expensive and time consuming business. Does your heart sink when you read this?

Well, I have some good news. None of that works – or only 2% of the time anyway! So what does work if going out and having to sell yourself doesn’t?

What you need to do is simply create a reservoir of people who know about you, who like what you do, and who ONE DAY might use your services?

Oh boy! When my coach at the time, Chris Barrow, told me this, I breathed a big wonderful sigh of relief. It’s now about having to sell yourself, it’s about concentrating on filling your reservoir with potential future customers.

How big should your reservoir be?

As I say, back in the day, my current coach Chris Barrow, business coach to many dentists and my first “sales coach” had a theory is that it should be in excess of 1000 to generate an almost effortless work flow, but that you start to attract clients at about 400-500 people.

If you are in a tight niche, it’s easier to attract potential future customer (notice how we are not even using the expression “sell yourself” now?)

How do you fill your personal reservoir and with whom?