How to Avoid the 3 Most Common Selling Mistakes in your Business

Do you remember those books of mazes from childhood? The ones where you’d start at one end, then have to navigate your way through a series of obstacles to get to the other side?

I like to think of (and teach!) the selling process like those maze games. Not only is it such an accurate visual, but by gamifying it, sales automatically becomes way more fun.

Selling doesn't need to feel icky or uncomfortable. In fact, if selling feels that way to you, then you're doing it wrong.

If you want to make more sales this month, this week, or even today, then this new post is for you!

Read on to learn how to identify the common selling mistakes service-based business owners and coaches make, and how to avoid them in your business to create the outcomes you desire.

Navigating the Sales Maze

Much like the maze games, when you’re selling, you start at one end with your prospects with the goal of coming out at the other end with them as your customers. You may hit walls or obstacles along the way, you may even need to backtrack at times, but you’ve got to keep going, searching for alternative routes.

If you're someone like me who really manages and thinks about using their energy strategically, then you may put a little bit more effort in upfront to figure out your game plan to get to the end goal, versus just trying to go through the maze haphazardly. When you learn from the mistakes of others, and you navigate the sales maze with intention, focus, and a strong desire to close, then you can reach your destination, aka the sale, more efficiently.

I make a lot of high ticket sales. And that requires focus and intention to navigate the maze. Sometimes I come up against a wall that I didn't even know was there… I come up against a prospect's obstacle because I didn’t dig deep enough at the start, so I didn’t know it existed. And this is key, whether you’re selling low, mid, or high ticket offers: You need to understand your prospect’s motives for buying. You need to uncover their reason for why they want to make the purchase and what may prevent them from doing so. These are the potential obstacles that you need to help them overcome. This is the sales maze. And if you treat it like the game it is, it can be incredibly FUN.

Avoiding the 3 Common Selling Mistakes

I'm going to give you the 3 common mistakes that service-based business owners and coaches make. And of course, I'm not just going to give you the mistakes, but I will also share ways to avoid them.

Mistake #1: Not being confident in your offer’s value

Now, notice I didn't say “in YOUR value.” While being confident in yourself and the value you bring to the table is a foundational component, often what ends up happening is the value of your offer gets lost in the process. Both matter, but you and your offer are two separate identities.

The key to your prospect is the results you are going to bring to them through your offer. We have a tendency to make things about ourselves, when in reality, it's not about us. So stop making it about you, and start making it about them. Stop making the sale about you and start making the outcome the focus of the sale. What happens after they purchase? When you focus on your prospect’s outcomes, you take you out of the equation.

The minute you believe in the value of your offer - of your product or service - then you're able to communicate that value naturally and authentically, with believability. And that energy gets transferred to your prospect like a magic wish. It's really freakin’ powerful.

Mistake #2: Focusing too much on selling, rather than relationship-building

Some people actually focus too much on selling. What do I mean by that? They're not focused on relationship-building, they're focused solely on selling. I want you to ask yourself, Is my focus consumed by the transaction?

You may feel as though you don’t need to focus on the relationship to get people in the door, but your ability to move people through your ascension ladder and get them to continue to buy more from you is dependent on the relationships you cultivate.

So figure out what you need to do to build trust and to build an authentic relationship with your prospects. It's just like building a relationship with anyone else. How did you create a friendship you cherish? What are the tenants that you have with your friends? What do you value in your relationships with your friends? Determine that, then begin to figure out how you can create that with your clients, too, even if you're selling en masse.

Mistake #3: Not following up

Consistent follow up is the key to converting probable purchasers into clients, yet so many people avoid this step in the process.

I always ask myself, Why do people not follow up? I have found that it ultimately comes down to them feeling uncomfortable. Whether they don’t feel confident in the value of their offer, or they simply don’t know what to say, they resist following up because they don’t want to just say, “Hey, are you going to buy my stuff or not?”

That brings me back to Mistake #2 - focusing too much on selling and not on relationship-building. If you approach your sales process through the lens of building a relationship, your interactions with your prospects change. You reach out not to simply check on the sale, but to share information, ideas, or other useful things with the genuine intention to connect and help.

And yes, of course, naturally moving forward with you will come up. And if it doesn't, you have an opportunity to bring it up that feels more in the flow of a regular conversation.

The sales are in the details. You WILL make sales and have fun doing it by establishing a really rock solid belief, building authentic relationships, and creating a follow up system that adds value.

Diving deeper

If you’re ready to invest in yourself and want a step by step approach to improving your sales, I’d like to invite you to join me in Your Success Frequency Membership - it’s a must have for anyone who wants to transform their business to earn more money by doing more of what they love. This will help you begin selling in a way that helps you skip those dead ends, make the sales you deserve, and have fun doing it!

In the membership, you’ll learn what you can do on a daily basis to take action towards your sales goals. We’ll cover strategies you can implement, you’ll automatically get my 22 Revenue Generating Ideas, and you’ll get access to a monthly call with me. You’ll also be a part of a community of other awesome entrepreneurs in the midst of growing their businesses.

It's only $27 a month when you pay annually, so it’s very accessible. Sign-up to get the tools, knowledge, and support you need to take action towards your sales goals.

Your Success Frequency Tip of the Day:

Today's strategy is to practice positive self-talk. Listen to the language that you use to talk to yourself because that language has a massive impact on your energy and your mindset. I always tell people: It takes way more energy to be negative, worried, and/or anxious than it does to be in a happy, positive state of mind.

So when you start hearing negative thoughts, write them down, and get them out of your head, because when they're in your head, they're swirling. When they're in your head, they're an infinite loop, a broken record. So get them out of your head, that's the very first step. Then, work with a coach who can help you reframe them into something positive. Then, the very next time you hear yourself saying anything that you wouldn’t say to your very best friend in the most loving and kind way, take it out of your head, put it on paper, and put it someplace else. Reframe it, work with it, move through it.