Secret Sales Formula- The power of authenticity
Authenticity + Curiosity + Desire to help= Confident Selling
HELPING FEMALE ENTREPRENUERS CHANGE THE MINDSET AROUND SELLING, INCREASING REVENUE WITH CONFIDENCE BY BUILDING REPEATABLE SALES PROCESSES.
Inspired by her own journey in corporate and entrepreneurship Gwen is helping to bridge the gap of selling from a place of confidence and authenticity. Whether you have zero experience in sales or decades- it’s time to refuse masculine sales norms and lean into our feminine gifts of empathy, intuition and relationship building skills.
Through my B3 framework (Breaking Belief Barriers) Be sure to check it out on my website. I show you how to have confidence through authenticity, increase revenue/sales by shifting your mindset around selling, then build repeatable sales processes that feel good to you and your prospect, which in turn will save you time, money and anti-aging cream! Ha!
You don't want to miss:
How losing authenticity happens to us all and why it happens
What you can do to gut-check yourself on the regular
We have to allow ourselves to feel life. Beyond that we need to process why we feel the way we do and get right with it, otherwise it starts to show up in areas of your life you least expect it.
I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. Most of you know by now how much I love this holiday and our family tradition. Its the one time of year that we intentionally slow down and make a point to reflect. Every morning I saw the sunrise, took out my journal with the intent to write. Instead, I found myself feeling all the feels. Joy, disappointment, love, gratitude, anger, fear then back to excitement and feeling blessed beyond measure. I’m sharing all this because we have to allow ourselves to feel life. Beyond that we need to process why we feel the way we do and get right with it, otherwise it starts to show up in areas of your life you least expect it.
We are human with emotions and bottom line- emotions drive us
One of the many reasons I love teaching on the subject of emotions in selling is because it’s not talked about in corporate, in fact, I would argue you're viewed as weak, unstable or too high a risk if you're openly emotional. I think that’s straight BS! We are human with emotions and bottom line- emotions drive us, so why not give your engine the fuel it deserves to go at the speed you're asking it too? If you have been looking for permission to have feelings around selling, here’s your sign my friend! If you're in an environment that tells you the opposite- run!
Authenticity, Curiosity + desire to help= confident selling. If your struggling with getting those sale to close, I”m willing to bet it’s because you have lost either your authenticity, curiosity or desire to help along the way.
Consumers today value authenticity and are more likely to engage with and purchase from those they perceive as genuine and transparent. I think we can all agree that it makes common sense. So why is it so easy for us to lose authenticity during the selling process?
It’s been forever, but I’ll give an example of dating. Do you naturally put yourself out there 100% on the first date? Not likely- You are A version of yourself sure but there is a part of you that you hide. During the date, whether you realize it or not, you're picking up on verbal and nonverbal cues that tell your brain it’s safe to let a little more of you show or not. (this my friends is a cycle of selling). Now Let's say you have a series of dates that don’t go as planned and soon, you have internalized everything, made the disappointments about the things that are wrong all about you, and not only is your self-esteem taking a hit, so are all the future opportunities of finding the ONE. Well, it’s because we are putting ourselves out there and asking other people to “buy” what we are offering, in other words. “Buy” you. All of you, the good the bad, and the ugly.
If we are being honest, running a business is a lot like dating. You have to figure out your target audience, attract them, and then have them buy what your selling. What your selling is personal, it started with a thought/idea that you had the guts to see through, your asking someone to form an opinion of what you are offering and look at the good but then ride the bad and ugly out with you down the road because you have built a relationship on trust and authenticity.
As time goes on, experiences shape us and if we are not grounded in our values, we can quickly get out of alignment with who WE are and conform to what we think others want
As time goes on, experiences shape us and if we are not grounded in our values, we can quickly get out of alignment with who WE are and conform to what we think others want. This is how authenticity gets lost in the selling process. Combine this, with the pressure of hitting numbers and meeting deadlines we have a formula for a decrease in sales and you don’t even know it! This shows up in our verbal and non-verbal communications, the tone in which we speak with people, whether we choose to follow up and, or if our follow-up is genuine, whether we start to make every conversation about what we need not what they need. We stop coming from a place of help, but from a place of inner strife, and the old saying “people can sniff BS a mile a way” has never rung more true. This is why feedback, and having the right person give you feedback is so important.
Good news! There are things you can do to gut-check this but it starts with getting real and honest with yourself and open to hearing feedback
Journal daily or weekly: As yourself these questions:
3 Things you're grateful for
3 things you accomplished
3 things you will accomplish
If you do this consistently for a week, you will start to see where you are giving your time and energy the most. Do they align with your values? Where can you get back on track?
At the end of the month or quarter- Gut check by asking your customers, friends, and family-
If you had to describe me in 3 words right now what would they be?
If you hear things like stressed, overwhelmed vs passionate, excited, etc then you know you are giving off the wrong energy which is bleeding into your sales.
At the end of the month- Go prospect by prospect and look at the ones who closed vs the ones who didn’t and make a column of “what went well” & “what didn’t” and then ask yourself how you felt about the things that went well and how you felt about the things that didn’t. - Don’t we all want to feel good about what we do?
Start/Stop/Continue buckets
3 things you will start doing in the next month
3 things you will STOP doing
3 things you will continue doing
Systems and formulas are great but we have to remember, we are dealing with people. People are messy and shouldn’t be boxed into a system. Treat each conversation as if you're having a conversation with your girlfriend over coffee. In my opinion, sales conversations are just that- a conversation to dive deeper and to understand someone’s needs or problem and If you can help solve it. If you can’t, that’s ok. Someone else can. I have told many that I didn’t feel I was the best fit for various reasons and referred them to others in my network whom I genuinely felt could serve them more and better. That’s not a failure to me, that’s being transparent and authentic. 100% of the time I have received gratitude and thanks and in turn positioned myself to be a trusted guide to them in the future. I may not be able to serve them now, but perhaps later and they are going to refer me to others because they know their friends will have a positive experience with me.
Through my B3 framework (Breaking Belief Barriers) Be sure to check it out on my website. I show you how to have confidence through authenticity, increase revenue/sales by shifting your mindset around selling, and then build repeatable sales processes that feel good to you and your prospect, which in turn will save you time, money, and anti-aging cream! Ha!
Key Quotes
“It simple- Authenticity + Curiosity + The Desire to Help = confident selling.
Connect With gwen
Check out my NEW website www.gritandtenacityconsulting.com
Email: gritandtenacityconsulting@gmail.com
Downloads
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