I Hate Selling – How to Overcome Your Aversion to Sales
“I hate selling” is something I hear from so many therapists and coaches. How does the idea of selling make you feel? For many, it’s not a great feeling. I completely get it – it’s not my favourite thing either and in my book, marketing isn’t just selling but that’s a whole other story!
Unfortunately, the image many of us have of selling is not positive. However, the ability to sell is essential if you want to run a successful coaching business or therapy practice. Any kind of business, really.
If you suffer from an aversion to selling, this is something you have to get over. It just takes a slight change of mindset.
I Hate Selling – How to Overcome Your Aversion to Sales Share on X
Selling Is Helping People
One major reason people hate selling is that they see it as something manipulative. You’re trying to convince someone to buy something against their will and using dirty tricks to do it. But if you’re offering a product that’s actually helpful for the prospect, there’s no manipulation involved. You’re “serving” them, not “selling” to them.
For example, let’s imagine that you’re selling coaching sessions to help clients build an internet-based business. Rather than convincing the person to sign up by emphasizing your skills and credentials, you could offer a free session where you teach a few crucial things they can apply today to get results. Once they try what you taught them, they’ll realize the value of what you offer.
Think of selling as serving your clients. Providing a genuine service they want or need. Share on X
Listen to Your Prospect
Another reason we hate selling is that it seems pushy and annoying. The typical image of the salesperson is someone who’s talking a mile a minute and overwhelming a prospect until they are helpless and ready to buy.
Listening is something you clearly have as part of your basic skills in your therapy or coaching practice but you need to use it in your marketing and sales promotion too.
Actually, in order to sell well, you need to be a good listener. You need to understand your prospect well and understand their needs. After offering your service, follow up with them to see what they liked and what they’d like to see improved or changed.
In order to sell well, you need to be a good listener. You need to understand your prospect well and understand their needs. Share on X
A Personal Process
We often see sales as impersonal. People are just numbers. You go for quantity over quality, hitting as many prospects as possible until one buys because it’s a numbers game.
But good salespeople connect personally with their prospects. First, you make a personal connection. Then, with respect for your prospect, you work together to find solutions to their problems.
Good salespeople connect personally with their prospects. First, you make a personal connection. Then you work together to find solutions to their problems. Share on X
Confidence Issues
Many of us hate selling on a much more gut level. The reason it makes your skin crawl is because of those two simple letters: NO. To put it simply, rejection hurts. Even when you know it’s not a personal rejection, it can still sting when you make a great effort to explain your product and the prospect, in the end, says ‘No’.
There are many things you can do to build up confidence. Confidence grows naturally through experience. The more you face rejection, the tougher you get. But you can also gain confidence by understanding your service well and how it genuinely helps people. If you know the strengths of your service, you can better communicate this to prospects.
Stop Hating Selling
Approaching selling with a different mindset won’t make you an overnight super salesperson! However, if you can overcome your negative feelings and remove these blocks you’ll become much more comfortable with the whole sales process.
If you need help you can book a short call to chat with me about attracting new clients and growing a Predictable Practice anytime by clicking here https://calendly.com/morrmarketing/15minintrocall.
