How Learning About Sales Boosted My Bottom Line [Part 1]

To keep giving you relevant and timely content, we update our most popular posts. This article was last updated in May 2021.

You’re a smart cookie, because you know that people don’t just show up out of thin air to hire you.

You know you need to have a summary that describes what you do.

You know you need an offer with clear “how to hire me” steps listed on your website.

And you know you need a web presence that speaks to your target audience.

Then, with those foundational pieces in place, you know your next step is to get out there, interact with potential clients, and spread the word about your business.

And you’re doing it!

You’re showing up to be of service.

You’re pitching awesome guest posts.

You’re getting interviewed on top podcasts.

It’s awesome to watch your action-taking!

But you’re not seeing clients roll in like you thought they would, so what gives?

Today I want to tell you the small but important step you’re missing when it comes to filling your roster.

It’s the game-changer that took me from making some money to growing my business to six-figures and beyond.

You’ve got to sell

Let’s jump right to the punchline: The next, crucial step you’re missing is sales.

And you shouldn’t be scared to hear this (like I used to be). Instead, you should be thrilled!

I used to think sales was manipulative, self-serving, and shady. I thought that employing sales techniques would compromise my integrity, require me to abandon my authenticity, and make me look like a money-hungry shark.

Then I met Kendrick Shope, a sales genius who turned my whole perception of sales around, from thinking it was selfish to realizing it was actually selfless.

In fact, when you do it right (like Kendrick teaches), sales is about helping your prospects make the perfect decision for themselves, not convincing them to do something they don’t want to do.

And when you really get that, everything changes.

Prospects find you faster, say yes faster, turn into happy, repeat customers, and refer you more frequently. How awesome is that?!

Click to TweetSales is about helping your prospects make the perfect decision for themselves, not convincing them to do something they don’t want to do.

When and where to sell

Simply put, you need to always be selling.

Now I don’t mean “always be pitching”—that’s annoying. I mean selling.

And if you look closely, you always have opportunities to sell.

Sales isn’t just for an offer, a phone consultation, a follow-up email, or a pitch. It’s not just for when you’re actively preparing to take a client or customer’s money in exchange for the awesome service or product you provide.

Sales should be always happening in your business, because you should always be helping your prospects decide if you’re the right fit for them.

You should put on your sales hat for both the obvious and less-obvious areas of your business, including:

Obvious areas of selling:

• Offer copy
• Consultation calls
• Follow-up emails

Less obvious areas of selling:

• Social media posts
• Engaging on social media to be of service
• Customer service emails
• General questions about your offers and services
• During networking

These “indirect” sales methods are important to the growth of your business—so much so, they deserve their own blog post.

For now, let me repeat myself:

I’m NOT saying that you are always pitching. I’m saying you’re always selling—selling YOURSELF, your business, and your offers.

Said another way, selling is helping your prospects have the right information to make the right decision for themselves. Your job is to always be providing them with the the information they need to make that right decision.

How to boost your sales through copy, consults, and emails

Now I’m not going to pretend that I’m the sales pro like Kendrick is. I’m still learning from her—daily!

What I can share is the game-changing tweaks that took my sales from lackluster to stellar, and the little insights that made everything about business easier.

And if I had to sum up “how to sell” in classic Jenny Shih, step-by-step style, it would go like this…

Step 1. Have an offer you LOVE to deliver to people you LOVE in a way you LOVE.

This has been the “magic formula” I’ve been teaching since 2011, and it’s still included today in the most popular programs I’ve offered over the years, including Get Your First 1000 Subscribers, Make It Work Online, and Make 10k.

When you have an offer you love for people you love that you deliver in a way you love, you’re aligned! And when you’re aligned, you’re excited. And when you’re excited, your prospects are excited. It’s magnetic!

Step 2. Know how to speak the language of your customers, and infuse it into all of your copy, especially into your offer copy.

You can’t help everybody, so it’s crucial to know your prospect’s specific challenges and desires. If you get stuck in the Jargon Trap or focus on your process instead of results, you’ll continue to miss the mark when it comes to your income goals.

Step 3. Create a foolproof system for nurturing your prospects.

If you’re being of service on social media, getting interviewed on podcasts, and landing guest posts, don’t let all that hard work go to waste!

Be sure to tell new audiences about your irresistible opt-in offer (most podcasts and blogs will allow you at least one link back to your site). Then follow up with your new subscribers by sending them valuable free content and telling them how they can hire you.

I teach my clients over 20 ways to attract perfect customers, so you have a lot of options on what to do. Choose the ones that you feel most called to follow through on, then do them consistently, day in and day out, over and over, repeatedly, until you fine tune your approach and make it feel systematic.

This won’t happen overnight (and likely not even in one month), but if you stick with it diligently and deliberately, it will kick into place.

You gotta sell

The bottom line here is, if you’re in business, you’re in the sales business. And if you want to make money, you have to sell—always and everywhere.

There’s a lot more to talk about when it comes to sales.

So after you implement what you learned above, hop over here to learn about where, when, and how to implement “indirect” sales into your business.