Ep. 005: The Art of Selling
Selling, much like tennis or knitting, is a learned skill. But it’s less difficult to learn than some would have you believe.
It doesn’t have to be pushy or gross at all. You don’t have to railroad someone into spending money either. You can do it in a way that’s both comfortable for you and the other person!
It comes down to a belief in what you’re selling, practicing good communication to convey your product or service to a potential client, and confidently asking for the sale.
I have 5 simple steps to sell, and none of them require you to memorize some weird script!
LINKS & RESOURCES MENTIONED TODAY:
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Erika Tebbens: Welcome back to the podcast. Today, I am super stoked to be sharing with you my No Sleaze Sales Method, or sometimes I call it a formula. I don't know. Either way, I am going to teach you the art of the sales conversation.
So much like knitting or playing the piano or underwater basket weaving, you can learn how to sell. But I promise it is easier than learning any of those other things. It's actually so simple. I'm going to explain it to you in the next few minutes.
And then much like learning anything else, with practice, it will get much easier and more comfortable over time. But it is not as scary and awful as you probably think that it is. So let me back up. Why does selling suck? I'll tell you why. If you don't already know, it's because there are really great examples of shitty selling all around us. They're just are.
I know now we live in a Netflix and Hulu world, so we aren't as bombarded with infomercials as we used to, because we can kind of, um, you know, filter that out of our life. But infomercials are a great example of it. Now, infomercials are masterful in a lot of ways in how they convince people to buy whatever it is that they are selling.
I mean, if you just want to think back to any infomercial that maybe if you were up late at night with a young infant feeding them and there was something else on and you watched many infomercial like I did when my son was a baby, you can actually kind of break them down and see how masterful and smart they really are, and the psychology they use to convince you to purchase whatever it is they're selling for three payments of just 1999. But that is not how you want to be running your business. I know that. Because it's not how I want to be running my business or my sales conversations is either. I never want to convince anyone that they have to buy what I have or their life will be awful. It's not my jam. I know it's not your jam either.
So some other examples are buying a car. People hate buying cars because of the high pressure environment, because they make you feel really stupid. They usually, uh, you know, they don't listen very well to what you're saying you need or what you want.
They're just kind of telling you what you should buy. And then throwing a lot of info at you about like horsepower and other stuff that you're like, "I don't care. Like, is it safe? Is it reliable? Does it have cup holders? Like great. I'm done. I don't, I don't care about the rest of it." But they just vomit all that information on you anyways.
And then there's just places where, you know, the servic is really bad. Uh, or you just, I don't know, feel like they just want to close the sale. They don't care about you as a person, um, or even, this is a really, really common one. Like have you ever been, uh, duped into somebody who is with like a network marketing company in MLM, um, or another type of business where they are really pitch heavy?
And you think you're just going to go out for coffee with them and chit chat and, uh, have a good time. And then it becomes this total Pitchfest and then they have gone into a whole, you know, 15 minute long rant about how, what they sell is, "You know, it's life changing or their opportunities, life changing, or yada, yada, yada."
I know, you know what I'm talking about. Like it's just a non stop, uh, vent fast about how they are a genius for finding this opportunity and how you need to get in on it too. And you know, the whole thing. I mean, God, do I, do I even need to go there? Probably not. I'm sure you are nodding along with me here because I cannot tell you how many times in my life that has happened and sidebar it's even worse when the like, little, the little like flip-chart or whatever, like the, the binder comes out and they're flipping through and showing you their checks. Oh my God. Do not get me started. I will, I will go on a rant and then you won't learn what I want you to learn. So let's get back to what good selling is and how to do it.
So we don't want any of those icky, yucky, gross feelings when we are talking to potential clients and customers. We don't want it. And therefore, since we assume that the only way to make more money is to be more pushy and more of a pitch bitch, and more just annoying, we shy away from making the money that we could.
So I'm going to teach you my, easy peasy, lemon, squeezy sales, no sleaze sales system, as opposed to the current one that you might be using, which is difficult, difficult lemon, difficult. All right, so here we go. I'm going to put a link in, uh, the show notes that is going to be all of this, uh, as a download that you can get for free.
So you don't have to take notes or anything. Um, you can just sit back and listen and enjoy, and then afterwards, be sure to go there and get it emailed right to your inbox. So you can always, um, refer to it later. Now I will say, I do have a more in-depth version of this in my course called Conversations That Convert, I'm going to put the link down for that in there as well.
They're both Bitly links. The first one is a bit.ly/nosleazeselling. And the other one is bit.ly/convosthatconvert. So short for conversations, convos that convert. So in that course, you can get through it in about 90 minutes and we do a much deeper dive into what I'm going to be sharing today.
And they're actually worksheets, so you can prep your own kick ass sales conversations. So that way, when you're on the spot, you're not like, "Oh my gosh, I totally forget what I was supposed to say." Um, you will be confident and ready to rock it and close that sale.
Also, there are zero, uh, scripts here. I do not believe in scripts. I could also go off on a rant on that. I will spare you for now. Uh, we've all been sold to, by a script. We've all had Karen from high school side and to our DMs, to tell us about her opportunity. We haven't spoken to her in 15 years. And you can tell it's that like, "Hey girl, buh-papapah-" script, right? So we know how yucky it feels to be sold to from a script. That is why I don't condone them. Okay?
So instead of a script, you're going to have a formula you can use that will work for you and your business and your clientele, your potential clientele. Okay? So, because I was a teacher, I tried to make learning as simple as possible. Because if you learn something and then forget it, what good does that do you? The answer is zilch.
So the method, you can remember it by the acronym sales, and I'm going to go briefly through each one. All right. So set the tone, first S set the tone. You want to be welcoming. You want to let the other person know you are so pumped they are there, you cannot wait to get to know them and help them and serve them.
I always harken back to the, uh, Julia Roberts, pretty woman, where they look at her, they make a snap judgment. They are very unwelcoming. And then it comes back to haunt them. I'm sure you have your own experiences where you have gone into a store or a restaurant you are just flat out ignored, even though they're not busy.
And you're like, "Hi, hello. I was going to spend money here. Like what the hell is happening? Why is somebody talking to me?" It does not feel good. So whether you sell in person, whether you sell online, whatever the case, make sure that you are leading with a good welcoming presence. So set that tone that the person is going to get when they work with you.
Okay. A, that's next. Ask good questions. So here's why that MLM example that I gave doesn't work. So even if you know that you are going to get coffee with that person and they are going to tell you about their products. So you're not ambushed, you know, they're going to tell you about their skincare line or whatever.
It still does not feel fun to have that 15 minute schpiel about how great their products are and the names of the dermatologists who formulated them and the name of the CEO who founded the company and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's just on and on and on and on with information that is not relevant to the other person.
They don't give a rip about the person who founded the company 10 years ago, because she wanted to start a business that could allow her to stay home with her kids. Like they don't care about that. They only care about what is this product going to do for me. So instead of vomiting information all over them, you can give them a little bit of information about, you know, who you are, what you do, how you help them.
But then ask them, what, what are you struggling with? What are some of your concerns when it comes to skincare? Ask them good questions. And that is going to go right into letter L, which stands for listen, limit and lead. So you are going to be a very good listener. And you are going to listen to what that person has to say.
So whatever she tells you, when you ask, what are your, some of your skin concerns, maybe she's like, "I have age spots. I have dry skin. I have combination skin. I have, you know, fine lines and wrinkles. I have adult acne." Whatever it is, you are going to listen, and then you are going to. Limits some of the options that you're suggesting and you're going to lead her to what you think is best.
Now, A and the L, the asking and the listening, this part, you're going to keep toggling back and forth cause you're going to refine it down to the best option for her right now. And this works. I know I'm using a product. This works in services too. Like I I'm a service-based business. I do this same thing with my potential clients as well on our, uh, strategy calls or discovery calls.
It's, it's the same thing. What I'm actually going to be like saying is obviously different cause I have a different business, but it's the same system, the same formula still applies. Okay? But I'm just going to, I'm just using the skincare example in this because it's something we can all relate to.
So you might say, "Okay, well, what are you, you know, what do you like about what you're already using? What do you not like about what you're already using? How many steps are you using? Do you do it morning and night? Just in the morning? Like, are you using the eye cream?" You know, just the whole thing you're gonna, you're going to keep asking questions and figuring it out.
Because when you, you don't want to just go, "Well, great. You know, here's our catalog. Um, I mean, I think that, you know, you'd be happy with any of it cause they're all great products. So like here's just our whole collection on aging and here's our one on adult acne and here's our one on, you know, dry skin. So like, whatever, like what do you want?"
That the other person doesn't know what they want because they're not the expert. You are the expert. So it's on you to figure out what is going to work for them, right now, that is the best case scenario for them, and you want to lead them to that option. So you could say, "All right, well, I know, you know, you said that you're struggling with these three things. I know you said that you really don't like to use more than like four steps at a time and that you are currently, you know, doing your skincare routine morning and night." So then you already know. So then you can say, "All right, I think you should get this bundle. And then you should add in like this eye cream in the morning, and then like this night cream at night, how does that sound?" Right? That is a lot better than just going, "I don't know. Here's all the things. Now you choose."
You're limiting and leading her to the best solution for her right now. Now she might say, "Uh, I don't, you know, I don't want the night cream or I don't want the eye cream." Or whatever. That's fine. You can always readjust how it's all going to shake out in the end, but you have done your due diligence.
Now letter E. Really simple one. Expect the yes. If you have done everything all along that you should do in the sales conversation, there's a very good chance that they are going to say yes, not a hundred percent chance. No one can guarantee that, but there's a very good chance because you did not overwhelm them. You had a good, you set a good tone. You asked them really good questions. You limited them to the best solutions for them right now. Chances are, they will say yes or maybe need to adjust their order a little bit.
And then the last S is suggest. So suggest whatever the next step is. Maybe you have to order that product in for them. Maybe you have some of it here, you know, maybe like if you have a boutique or whatever, maybe you have some of it here. Maybe you need to order some of it in, maybe it's all there and you just are going to wrap it up. Whatever the case may be, you're going to suggest the next step.
So for me in my business that might look like, "Okay, great, awesome. Here's what I'm going to do. You know, if you're going to be, um, A client of mine, we can either do one invoice. You can pay upfront, or you can do three monthly payments, let's say, so, which would you prefer?"
And then she says, you know, "Three monthly payments."
"Great. Okay. So I'm going to, is it okay if I send the invoice to, uh, this, you know, this email address that I have for you?"
"Yes."
"Perfect. Okay. In the meantime, here's what I want you to do, make sure to-"
Then, you know, XYC. "Make sure that you, uh, download this guide I have for free, or I'm going to send you a link to-" I don't know, whatever it is, a free training, a paid training, a course. I have something like that, "And I want you to go through it." Or there could be a trillion different things here.
Again, if you have that boutique, if you're maybe an esthetician, let's say you're selling that skincare, you can say, "All right, great. Are you on Instagram? Are you on Facebook? Awesome. While I rang you up, um, go ahead and find me on there. Here's you know, look under this name, go ahead and like me, so you stay up to date." Or it could be, "Can I add you to my email, uh, database so that I can send you the weekly newsletter? I could send you coupons."
Anything like that, you're going to suggest, because what you want to do is create a framework that enables that person to get a deeper level of engaging with you. Especially if you are, maybe you're doing like an event the next week or in a couple of weeks, give them a little flyer, let them know, "Hey, you can, you know, bring your friends." Or whatever it is, whatever makes sense for the event, but you want to keep deepening that relationship so they want to come back again and again and tell their friends, and that whole shebang.
So that is what you want to do. S A L E S very, very simple. In my course, I do have a bit more about overcoming objections. So, you know, we're not going to talk about that today because I just wanted to give you the basic outline of my no sleaze sales system. But yeah, that's, it, it really, really, really is that simple. And again, the more you do it, the easier it'll get. Um, and I highly encourage you to get the download and if you're really ready to uplevel your selling game, especially, if you want to have a higher price per spend like a higher guest spend, if you sell products and you want to, um, get better about like upselling and things like that, and get more confident so that you can have a higher guest spend per transaction, or if you sell higher priced free packages or coaching packages or anything like that, definitely check out the link for Conversations that Convert. You can get through it in under two hours and you can actually map out your whole custom plan and be ready for a few different scenarios within your business to be able to help you there.
So as always, if you have any questions, hit me up on social media. I'm at @erikatebbensconsulting. If you love this episode, snap a picture and put it up there too and tag me. Again, @erikatebbensconsulting. Is my account there, and if you have been loving the podcast, it really helps if you go. And review it on whatever platform you get your podcasts on.
So I hope that was helpful. Let me know if I can help you in any other way. And as always, happy selling.
