Aligning your Sales Process to Serve You AND Your Clients

Does selling your products or services make you feel frustrated? If you’re regularly finding that the sales aspect of your business drains your energy, then this post is for you. 

If sales is killing your vibe, then you’re likely selling out of alignment.

In today’s new post, I’m detailing out the process I use to sell high ticket offers that will help you realign your own sales technique to start selling from a place of service. 

Read on to learn how your business can not only survive but truly THRIVE when you learn to sell from your heart. Because when you sell from a place of service, not only do you win, your clients win too. 

If you’re selling without serving, you’re misaligned. 

Here’s something you may never hear me say again out of this context: Stop selling. 

There. I said it. 

But, Jen… my whole business is based on sales…

I hear you. You have to sell in order to stay in business. And I want you to make lots of sales. But - here’s the caveat - I want those sales to come from your heart. 

The reason I'm saying stop selling is because if you are currently selling without serving, then you are misaligned. And when you sell without service, sales often feel frustrating and draining. If you feel like you're just trying to get people to buy, it sucks the energy out of you. This is because, in all honesty, selling for the sake of selling alone is more manipulation than true selling. 

Did you know that the word sell is actually an Icelandic word? It means to serve or to give. Isn't that interesting that the root of selling is service? That means that if you're selling from a place that's not of service, then you've got it all backwards.

Aligning your sales with your client’s needs

The best way to sell from a place of service is to understand what your client needs. 

What does your client need? And how aware are they of that need? And where does your solution fit into their current needs? 

If you can best understand where they're at, what they need, what they're struggling with, and what would create pleasure, happiness, profit, or some other gain for them, then you can figure out where in your repertoire of skills you can make a match. 

Do you offer something that can align with their needs? You should only begin selling or trying to make sales once you've identified that place where there's a match. Because if you're trying to sell from any other place, you are likely manipulating. When sales start to feel uncomfortable, it’s because the sale isn’t aligned. It's not an aligned match if you don't know what their needs are, or if you're not trying to solve or serve a specific need. 

Selling with the intention to serve is a lot like piecing together a puzzle. You’re looking to see where the holes are in your client’s puzzle, and then you’re offering appropriate solutions to fill those gaps. 

Why it’s not worth it to sell your client something they don’t need

If while you’re uncovering your client’s needs, you realize that your services aren’t the right fit to complete their puzzle, don't freak out and try to sell them something they don't need. 

The worst thing that could happen is you sell them on it, then you’ve got to work to service it. Convincing someone to buy something they don’t need means the selling never stops - you create a misaligned client relationship because you're constantly trying to remind them and sell them on why they need the thing that they don't really need. It's not going to be a fruitful relationship for anybody; the customer is going to be frustrated, and you're going to be frustrated because you have to spend too much of your time on this one dynamic rather than selling to the right clients. 

There are so many things that happen down the road when you sell to the wrong clients. You don’t want to head down this path. Trust me. 

On the flip side, when you sell from a place of service, filling a genuine need, not only do you win, your clients win too. From that win-win naturally comes more wins: you get referrals, you get repeat business, selling becomes easier, and you can raise your rates because now you have glowing testimonials. Your clients are bringing in more clients because they're bragging about how freaking awesome you are. They essentially become sales reps for you, helping you make more sales because they’re seeing the results from your service. 

Determining where you may be misaligned in your sales process

You can't have a business without selling. If you're in the business of creating business, then you need to make sales. But if you're making sales that feel awkward, sleazy, and uncomfortable, it's likely because there's a misalignment. 

To solve this, you need to start asking in each sale, Where is the alignment? Where do I fit into my client’s current needs? Which piece of the puzzle can I fill for them?

The only way to determine all of this is to have conversations where you literally ask and uncover where they're at. 

I have a whole step by step process that I use when taking people through attaining more high ticket sales. I call the process my Connect, Convert, Collect Method. 

To start, you need to connect with your potential buyer, understand where they're at, build rapport so there's some trust, and then you confirm that you understand exactly where they're at. After that, you create the possibility, the potential, the opportunity of what it's going to look like when they work with you. Then you clear out any objections so that they feel comfortable committing to exactly what your offer is, and then you close the sale. 

As long as that initial part is clear, this can all be done in a conversation. Once you've determined exactly where they're at and what's missing, you can easily determine where your solution aligns in terms of where you can help them.  If you don't figure that out first, it's going to be that kind of sleazy, manipulative, gross selling experience each and every time. 

This method is all about making a real connection, building genuine rapport, and then confirming their problems, needs, desires, and exactly where they're at in their business. This way, you can create that possibility and help them visualize the opportunity of having you as their missing puzzle piece. 

This is also where you clear out any objections. Overcoming objections is actually much easier than most people think. You can usually predetermine what those objections may be before they even get on the call. You might not get all of them, but you'll get nine out of 10 every time. And from there, you can assume the sale - you assume the commitment. You set a date to start so that you can bring in the close, but you bring in the close in a really soft, gentle, and aligned way. Because at that point, it makes so much sense for them to move forward with you. And then you check up, you follow up to see if there's any extra time needed to make a decision, or potentially they've already bought with you on the call. 

If you show up to sell, be prepared to serve. 

I see this a lot, especially in the coaching industry - I see so many coaches who are great at sales, but they suck at service. They're great at bringing people in, yet they’re terrible at the actual service piece. They're like, Oh, I got them. Now, onto the next. 

That's not how this works. If you only focus on sales and not on your actual service, eventually you will be called out and will get a bad name in the industry. 

Once you’ve made the sale, the service begins. Your onboarding service is critical. The experience you create for your client immediately following your close is just as important as the rest of your sales process. Sell and serve, or don't sell at all. 

Diving deeper

I’ll be diving deeper into my Connect, Convert, Collect Method on a future podcast episode. We will go through each step of the process in more detail: Connect, Confirm, Create, Clear, Commit, Close, and Check.

If this is something that you're interested in working with me on one on one, developing exactly what your personal sales process looks like, I would love to take you through it. DM me on Instagram and we can set up a time to chat.