Selling Your Soul

For many entrepreneurs and small business owners, it can be very challenging to feel good about selling. It’s so easy to get lost in what seem like the more important day-to-day operations of their business. But when we don’t focus on selling, all that happens is we keep seeing poor results in our business.

Why do we struggle with selling?
• We don’t want to be pushy.
• We feel inauthentic – until you’ve sold a lot (and learned to do it in the way that’s true to you) it can feel forced and scary.
• We’re not sure if selling is the right thing to do.
• We’re not sure how to sell.
• We’ve tried selling before and feel like we’ve failed.
• We get uncomfortable during the selling process and stop before we’re finished.

I’ve personally had a BIG shift about selling… a HUGE mindset shift. I used to think that I didn’t have to sell, that people would just discover how amazing I am, and how much value I had to offer them, without me having to do anything or explain anything.
Part of the reason I was in this mindset trap is that I’ve always been very good at marketing, but in more of a subtle, indirect way. For a long time in my business, things just “flowed”… but there were also many times when things DIDN’T flow.

Not being able to be consistent was frustrating and unpredictable. And I finally realized that running your business from that perspective is going to make you fail. For years I was uncomfortable selling and, frankly, I didn’t understand why I needed a sales structure, marketing plan, or business model.

Now I do.

If you know you are challenged by this, start by shifting your beliefs about selling. Understand first, that you can be yourself as you share your “offer” with potential customers or clients. Second, start reading some [more] books about sales to keep learning how you can get better (the secret is implementing proven sales strategies, while staying authentic and confident – believing in yourself and your product or service).
The reality is that nothing (or, not much) happens until you make an offer. Your business cannot and will not grow unless you start taking action that gets you more comfortable with selling and doing more of it.

Action steps

1. Read more sales books, and learn to incorporate new sales strategies into your existing
business model.

2. Build a new confident mindset. Know that you are good at communicating the incredible value of your brand, products and services.

3. Dare to change. If you’re afraid of selling, spend more time studying it and doing it. Make friends with sales and embrace that part of your business.

© 2010 Ingrid Elfver. All Rights Reserved.

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You are welcome to leave any comments, questions or thought below, I love to get your perspective.