If you present your offer in the right way, the sales part should be easy.
Or, to put it another way:
The better you present your offer in your appointment, the easier the sales process becomes.
Often, the sales process seems so difficult because we’re too scared to ask for money.
As mentioned before, when I started out as a web design freelancer, I couldn’t believe that people were willing to give me money for something that I found so easy.
It felt weird asking people for money – even though the first few websites I created were for just $300 – $500.
It took me years to become comfortable asking for money and asking people to commit to working with me, and later, “us”.
It’s different for everyone, but most of this comes down to our own personal belief systems around money.
See, I was never really taught anything about money as a kid.
I always wanted money, but it wasn’t a topic that we discussed as a family.
As a result, I thought it was rude to ask any questions about money – let alone ask someone to give it to me.
So, what changed?
As my skills grew, I grew extremely tired of being paid next to nothing, while my clients were making tens of thousands of dollars as a direct result of my work.
So, I started looking at things from a value perspective.
When you look at things from a cost perspective, it’s attacking the issue of money from a mindset of lack.
Looking at the same problem from a value perspective is coming from a mindset of abundance.
For Example:
If a new website is going to cost you $500, that’s $500 less you’ll have for everything else.
If a website will help your business bring in $100,000 of new work in the next 12 months, it probably has a value of $10,000
It’s the same website, but the sales conversation is different.
Instead of saying “our website costs $500, which is a bargain”, you say “Based on previous results for clients, we estimate this website will help to bring in an additional $100k in the first 12 months alone, which means your investment of just $10,000 means you will be getting a 10x return on your investment. If you look at it over the lifetime of a website, which is around 3 years, your $10k investment will likely deliver a 30x return”
Now, this works really well when selling services to businesses.
But what about direct-to-consumer sales?
How do you sell a new roof, or a dental filling, or a pair of new car tyres?
Honestly, consumers can be swayed by value, but not all of the time.
And this is where the bi-product of selling by value comes in – confidence.
If you are confident that your offer is a terrific value, that confidence will help you sell more.
It’s hard to do over written text, but imagine someone who is worried about asking for the sale, compared with someone who has full confidence that the amount they’re asking for is fully worth it.
“We normally charge… $500? for these 2 new tyres… but I can find something cheaper if you want?…”
compared with…
“These 2 tyres will be the best for you, they’re not our most expensive, but will likely suit the type of driving you’re doing. The total combined price for the 2 tyres is $500.”
Giving the price with confidence is an absolute must if you want to grow your sales.
One thing that helped me personally in this area (and it might seem a bit crazy) is to write down all of the benefits of the offer/product.
Next, estimate (accurately) the value of all of these benefits.
Come up with a combined total value of all benefits, and compare that with your price.
As long as your customer is getting the better deal (more value in terms of benefits than the cost), you should be confident in your pricing because you know the customer is getting the good end of the stick.
Next, tell someone else about the value exchange you have just calculated.
Your spouse, parents, siblings, friends, kids… whoever.
Telling someone else about it solidifies the value exchange in your own mind and confirms that it’s a good deal for the customer – and this gives you growing confidence around your pricing.
We could write another 100 articles on pricing alone (seriously), but when it comes to it, most of the errors people make in sales are simply down to a lack of confidence around their prices, and their own personal money values.
Aside from money confidence, what else makes the sale process much easier?
Follow Up
A strong follow-up procedure must be in place.
I spoke to a business owner once who told me his follow-up procedure.
He would send a quote out and if there was no response after 2 weeks, he would send out a couple of messages.
He repeated this process 3 times and then eventually stopped messaging people after about 5 months.
I asked him how long a typical sales cycle was – how long between someone contacting him and then needing the work to be started.
He said most people would need the work started within 3 months of first contact (it was an industry where they fix a lot of issues).
I pointed out to him that his follow-up process was longer than what his clients were willing to wait.
By the time he had given up, these potential clients had likely already had their issues fixed.
In this situation, a much faster follow-up procedure was required.
The same process, but sending a follow-up message every couple of days – instead of every few weeks – was required.
When following up, remember that you are only following up with people who have asked you for a quote or some kind.
These people understand that they have asked for information and that you will be asking them to make some kind of a decision to spend money with you or not.
Intent
No matter how desperate you are for the sale, you can never show it.
A desperate salesperson doesn’t make any money.
Your intent in your follow-up has to always be courteous and respectful while understanding that the more time a lead has to think about your offer, the less likely they will be to go ahead.
There will always be a reason not to make a purchase or become a customer.
Trying to sell someone new tyres? They’ll probably want to “shop around” first.
Trying to replace someone’s roof? Maybe an unexpected bill will come through and they will decide to put off the roof replacement for another couple of years.
There’s always going to be a reason why your lead doesn’t have to spend money with you.
Don’t give them the chance to come up with those reasons.
A strong sales pillar will help you close more deals than you could ever hope, dream, or imagine.
When I started out in business, someone said something to me that I will never forget.
I was worried about how I would be perceived if I kept following up with leads who I had sent quotes to.
This person said to me:
“why do you care so much about what (name) from a piddly little business down the road thinks of you? It’s not their job to put food on your kids plates – it’s yours.”
And while harassment is never the right way to go about doing things, it made me realise that if someone has asked for a quote, it’s only respectful of them to give me a response either way.
So, as long as I haven’t heard a no from them, you keep going because it might just be a yes.