Contrary to popular belief, sales isn’t a difficult discipline. It’s less about what you think you can say to win the sale and more about reframing your mind.

It’s amazing how sales sends shivers down the spine of so many women, and can often see many of us think we aren’t confident enough, chatty enough or full of enough swagger to see the results roll in.

Yet life isn’t like The Apprentice and Lord Sugar isn’t sitting there waiting to fire you for making one wrong business decision or missing a sale. In fact, everyone can sell and everyone can make good sales and work with dream clients, without ever needing to don a dodgy suit or be a wheeler dealer.

Rachael Howourth, award-winning Global Sales & Business Mentor and Founder of Her Infinite Abundance has demystified the sales process and unlocked how to do sales with ease not sleaze, and without the pushiness we might think it involves.

Here’s how to go from cold to sold and attract your dream clients….

Sales are the lifeblood of business

If you think you don’t need to sell in your business, then it means your marketing is so perfect it delivers all your leads and sales without you having to lift a finger. Now, apart from ecommerce businesses (who rely on their marketing to do all the work), every business, especially serviced based ones, need a sales process. After all, the money has to come from somewhere. If you’re not making sales, you have a hobby not a business I’m afraid!

So why are so many women so afraid of them? 

Sales and marketing go hand in hand, and can work together perfectly to deliver high quality leads and those dream clients you’re seeking. Your marketing highlights your services to your target audience and generates leads, and your sales process is what closes them. Every business needs both to bring the money and the dream clients in. It’s a non-negotiable for success.

Everyone can sell, even introverts

I’ve heard many people say they aren’t cut out for sales, particularly women. But here’s the thing, women often make great salespeople because they are good listeners. And if you're a woman who particularly likes problem solving, and helping people, then you will naturally enjoy sales. 

The main pushback I get is from people who are introverted and believe only extroverts can sell. There’s a common misconception that if you’re good at sales it’s because you’ve got the gift of the gab or you’re the loudest one in the room. Yet it’s the opposite.

An extrovert likes the sound of their own voice, to be bubbly and loud or the centre of the party. More often than not, those extroverts are not as great listeners and will fall into the trap of pushy sales. By not listening they will miss the trigger signs and emotional hooks that a buyer shows, and can miss the sale completely.

Introverts often worry that they need to be out there and highly visible all the time; especially in the age of social media. Yet it doesn’t have to be all jazz hands and dancing videos. To sell your services, what you need to demonstrate is that you care about the people that you work with, and you care enough to ask questions, to hear the answers, and to really figure out what the best next step is for them.

You can’t just expect sales, you need to put the groundwork in

In this social media marketing era, many believe if they put content or the intention to attract sales out there then that should be enough. Dream clients and high quality leads are not just going to appear then convert, and simply expecting it is going to leave you disappointed.

You need to network, to build a community, to be speaking to others and listening to them. If you are only putting out content or doing things to get something in return, then you’re playing the reciprocity game and it’s a downward slope.

Instead try to remember that everyone in your audience is your potential client. You might have 2,000 followers on instagram, and that doesn’t mean all 2,000 are buying right now but if you trust that one day they will, then you can focus on delivering what they need to see or feel to encourage them to invest in the future.

Lack, fear and comparison with others, as well as that little devil imposter syndrome, all get born out of the expectation that success needs to happen overnight. It takes work, belief, building and engaging with your community and target audience to see the real results. Because the expectation is like, suddenly my business is going to explode because of that one great post that I wrote. Everything else feels hard, including sales, but it doesn’t need to!

Selling starts with listening and being a problem solver

Just because you’re selling something, it doesn’t mean you become a used car salesman or an overzealous estate agent where you must be pushy. You don’t have to persuade someone to do something they don’t want to, and sales really isn’t about that at all.

Selling isn’t always about a well written script that can unlock millions from a buyer. It starts with listening and matching your buyer’s problem with your solution.

It’s simply a conversation between you and another person about a problem they have that you can help with. As long as your solution and their problem are aligned, then buying from you becomes the next natural step.

When we shift selling to serving, the mindset and energy around it completely changes too. This is the biggest game-changer you can make to create success in your business, and even life, because in reality we’re always selling - an idea, suggestion, it’s all sales! Reframe sales as simply finding an answer and helping and watch it feel so much easier for you.

Ask permission to unlock your sales leads

One of the strongest tools for selling is permission based sales, which means that you don't invite the sale unless the buyer gives you permission to do so; and here’s the thing, that’s half the work done!

An example of this is statements like ‘Now that you've understood a bit more about me, and I've understood what it is that you'd like to change,  I feel confident I can help with that. What would you like to happen next?’

It puts the power back to the buyer or potential customer, and reframes you as the problem solver that can help. It can even be as simple as a DM on social media where you say ‘Would you like me to send the details for the offer?’ You wait for them to say yes, before you do it. You invite them to give permission which makes them feel in the driving seat and not like they’re being ‘sold’ to, which makes most people feel a bit icky!

As a seller, you’ll find you’re much more comfortable because your potential buyer has asked you to share, rather than you feeling like you're pushing it on to them.

Get comfortable with saying no to leads that aren’t right for you

It sounds counterintuitive to turn down sales but trust me; sometimes it’s necessary to make sure you find the dream clients, not just any clients.

I always teach that you don't want to do a sales call with everyone. You want to do a sales call with those special people who are ready to move forward and buy. Yet if you’re offering up time for a discovery call or a free session in your diary with anyone and everyone, you can often end up with time wasters rather than those dream clients you’re seeking. So that means getting comfortable with turning people down and saying no if it’s not a good fit.

Any potential leads need to be screened with some pre-call questions; this is how you find out that they are ready to invest. Those are the ones you want to put in your time with, and ultimately convert with your sales process.

Your conversion rates should be at around 70% to 80%, which would mean signing three out of every four calls. Spending time with those people who aren’t ready to buy will only lower your conversion rate, steal your time and result in less success.

In summary, your simple secrets to sales success is to shift your mindset from selling to serving, actively listen more than you talk, show you can solve their problem, ask powerful questions and invite them to give permission for you to share your offer with them so they feel like they’re in the driving seat.

When you master these steps, you can go from cold to sold with ease not sleaze. And that’s what we all want right!