Let’s just get to the point: here’s the list.

1) If you own a business, you are the CEO, and the CEO has to sell. This is true even in the Fortune 100 companies I’ve consulted with. When a huge deal is on the table, the CEO shows up to close it. 

2) You can learn to love selling. Yes, you! I never thought I could. Wrong. When you love your business and have the opportunity to speak to a prospect about how you can help them, you are offering a gift and a service. 

3) You will lose (way) more than you win. That’s true of even the best salespeople. A lost sale does not necessarily mean you did anything wrong. But taking a moment to review doesn’t hurt either. Then tell the universe  ”Next, please!” and move on.

4) The best customers sell themselves. It’s fascinating to me how often people contact me about coaching who already know they want to coach with me. (Of course, that’s also because I market — we’ll save that topic for another time.) The point is: you don’t have to “make” them do anything.

5) Selling helps you grow into a bigger, more outgoing, more helpful person. Many entrepreneurs, myself included, grew up shy and uncomfortable with attention. The process of learning about sales and getting out there and doing it teaches us, through experience, that we can open up, think on our feet, and express the personal leadership in our hearts. To have what we want, we have to expand into it.

6) Write scripts and practice. If you don’t know exactly what to say during a sales situation, the customer may perceive you as hesitant or lacking in confidence. Write out what you will say word for word.  Then practice. Here’s a tip a professional sales trainer gave me: speak your scripts out loud in front of a mirror. It works! You build confidence before your own eyes.

7) Have enough potential sales in the pipeline that you’re not desperate for any one of them to happen. Prospects can sense desperation and they run from it. The best way to feel calmly confident is to generate an abundance of opportunity. Like fishing in a well-stocked lake, you will bring home a catch.

Till next time, here’s to your successful self employment!

Andrea

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Reprinted from Successful Self Employment (SSE) News by Andrea Conway, the Law of Attraction marketing coach for solopreneurs and small business owners ready to make all the money they want from the business they LOVE. Subscribe to SSE News at www.successfulselfemployment.com/signup.php