To keep giving you relevant and timely content, we update our most popular posts. This article was last updated in May 2021.
Selling is so much more than a script for a discovery call or template for a follow-up email. Sales is pervasive in your business—and that doesn’t mean icky, pushy, slimy, or conniving.
I like to think of sales as making a meaningful connection with your prospect so they know whether or not you’re the right person to hire or buy from. You don’t need to be even the tiniest bit pushy or manipulative about it!
When learning sales, as with learning all new skills, it’s helpful to have tools, templates, and scripts to get you started. You combine those tools with core concepts and ideas, and together, you learn how to sell authentically.
And that’s the key: Having both tools and the ideas.
Today I’m excited to share with you three powerful sales concepts that help get you in the right frame of mind to sell and more effectively use any sales tool you learn (from me or anyone else). These ideas were taught to me by sales expert Kendrick Shope.
Sales Concept #1 – Selling should feel good.
I used to think that selling was manipulative, conniving, and otherwise ingenuine. I was afraid that if I learned sales skills, it meant I would be tricking my prospects into paying me money … so of course I ran from anyone who wanted to teach me about sales!
But over time, as my consults were growing in number but not converting into paying clients as frequently as I thought they should, I realized that sales skills were something I needed to learn.
This is where Kendrick Shope entered my life and taught me the basics of consults and follow ups. My consult conversion rate skyrocketed to nearly 90% almost immediately.
More than just skyrocketing my consult conversion rates, I was also helping people make the decision to not hire me when that felt most appropriate. And wow, did that clarity feel good!
All of this made me realize that selling didn’t just put money in my pocket, it helped my prospects make smart decisions for their own lives and businesses.
This all felt so good!
And if sales consults and follow-ups could feel good, where else could I learn and implement sales concepts that felt good and helped people?
The short answer? Every single area of my business.
Sales Concept #2 – Sales is essential in every aspect of your business.
After learning to use sales skills in consults and follow-up emails, I slowly saw how sales infiltrated every part of my business. And I’m not just talking about the obvious stuff: sales pages, offer copy, sales emails, webinars, etc.
I’m talking about every area of business. For example…
Email subject lines need to “sell” people on opening them.
Teasers to my blog post in my weekly email newsletter need to “sell” people on clicking through.
Social media posts need to “sell” people on engaging.
Customer service emails need to “sell” the person on the other end of the email into a place of satisfaction, specifically if they were frustrated by something.
… just to name a few.
Once I realized that selling is pervasive in business, from managing a team to communicating with readers and prospects, I saw how to leverage what I learned from Kendrick to make everything simply work and sell better.
Business (and life!) got easier once I realized it’s all about sales!
And again, not in the manipulative kind of way but in the “help people make the best decision for themselves kind of way.”
Sales Concept #3 – The average sale takes 7 touches with a customer before they say yes.
Nothing was more discouraging to my early business self than people who would reach out and ask about my services and then disappear. It was so frustrating!
There’s where Kendrick’s insight helped my sales mindset.
She taught me that 50-80% of all sales require 7 touches with a customer before they say yes. 7! Once I realized this, I no longer saw a “disappearing prospect” as a sign that I was a doomed business owner. I learned to see this as a trigger for following up with them.
In fact, I started a simple spreadsheet where I tracked email and social media inquiries about my services, and I used it diligently. Some prospects warmed up quickly and others were nurtured on and off for a few years before saying yes. (Yes, years. And that’s still the case today.)
The cool thing was that this list was powerful for me to have and use. Because week after week, I had growing interest in my work and that meant a growing group of people who may hire me one day!
Learning to write follow-up emails and connect with these prospects (genuinely and authentically but also using some well-honed sales skills!) became a skill I was excited to cultivate and hone further.
Even better, as my packages grew in price, follow-ups became a more important part of the sales process, and by then, I had nearly mastered them. Talk about a win-win, for my clients and for my business.
All in all, sales has been one of the most important skills I’ve ever learned in my business … because, simply put, you can’t make money if you don’t know how to sell.
There’s always more to learn.
If any of the three above ideas gave you an aha about selling and you’d like to learn more, I’m excited for you.
Because when you infuse sales knowledge to everything you’ve already learned about serving your clients, marketing your business, showing up on social media, and more, that’s when you see (more) money start coming in the door.
The truth is, marketing doesn’t work without selling.
You can “spread the word” and “put yourself out there” all you want, but if you don’t know how to invite customers to work with you, you won’t reach your income goals.
That was what was happening to me back in 2012. I was marketing, blogging, emailing, social media-ing, and so much more. I had lots of interest in my work, but I wasn’t getting all the yeses I expected to.
Long story short, that’s when Kendrick Shope stepped in and started teaching me about sales.
This had a bigger impact on my business’s bottom line than any other coach I’ve worked with or program I’ve taken.
Simply put, I wouldn’t be where I am today if I hadn’t learned from Kendrick back in 2012.
Since then, Kendrick’s served over ten thousand business owners—from newbies to those with 7-figure operations—helping them implement sales strategies that have a direct impact on their bottom line.
The best way to learn from her is in her program, Authentic Selling® University. (Yes, I’m an enthusiastic affiliate for this program.)
Authentic Selling® University is where consultants, coaches, course creators, and small business owners like you learn how to make their marketing efforts turn into paying customers.
Because she had such a huge impact on my bottom line back then—and many times since—I am also an affiliate for her top-notch program, Authentic Selling® University.
I have seen in the results clients get in her program, and it’s the best online sales training program I’ve experienced.
If you’d like to learn more about Authentic Selling® University, you can check out the program here.
You can also read my 100% honest review of the program (plus answers to the most-asked questions).
My Personal Recommendation for YouMy 100% Honest Review of Kendrick Shope’s Authentic Selling® University
I wanted to ask if we are a little bit annoying if we go back to a client, for example that did not show up in a call??
Thanks for asking. I’m happy to help. Think of it this way… If you had a friend who said she’d get back to you after her trip out of town, and you knew she’s been back a week but you hadn’t heard from her, would you reach out to check in and see how she was doing? Of course you would. You care about her as person and wanted to make sure everything was okay.
We care about our clients as people, so we want to make sure they’re okay. Whether they’re a paying client or a prospect, reach out just like you would to a friend with a kind check-in.
One tip is to write the email that you’d like to receive from someone who cared about you, and you’ll be on track.