When I was growing up, I was a Girl Scout for several years. In those days, we went door to door, often alone, and asked each person if they would like to buy some Girl Scout cookies. Some were kind enough to say yes, but most said no. A few people even slammed the door in my face.
I learned very early that no one liked a “salesperson” and knew I was never going to be involved in sales because I couldn’t stand that kind of rejection.
That was before I realized how fun it could be to count money.
A few years later, I got a chance to spend the summer with my grandparents. My grandfather owned a small convenience store and he let me run the cash register. I loved ringing up the sales and counting the money at the end of the day.
Over the course of the summer, I became confident enough of my abilities that I was able to help the customers by answering questions and helping them decide which item to buy. That’s when I knew that some day I wanted to have my own business.
Having a business sounded fun, I enjoy helping people solve their problems and making money doing what I love sounded great!
What I naively forgot was, the “money part” had to come from selling.
I started my first business with a friend of mine; she was in charge of the creative side of things, and I was in charge of the business side.
As soon as I realized that this meant that I was in charge of sales, I had flashbacks to my days as a Girl Scout and all of those negative feelings from my selling experience came rushing back.
The truth was that I felt that having to persuade people that we were the best ad agency for them was “sleazy” or unprofessional; that if we were really good, people would automatically know it.
I began taking every class on selling that I could find and reading every “How to be good at selling” book I could get my hands on. I continued to push myself to make cold calls, wrote the fancy letters I had been told were sure to get me appointments, and still I had no luck. And I continued to hate selling.
Then one day, I realized I had selling all wrong.
It was when I had one of those “ah-ha” moments while guiding one of my advertising clients through their sales process that I realized I had it all wrong. Intellectually, I knew the steps I needed to take, but I was missing the reason I had gotten into business in the first place; to help people.
When I realized that I wasn’t “selling” something to people or trying to force them to give me money, but actually was showing them how we could work together to solve their problem, things became so much easier.
And that’s when “sales” started to become fun.
When you help the people you are meant to help, when you connect with people in a meaningful way, when they know that you understand their needs and are able to solve their problem… that’s when you will fall in love with selling, because this is when people will fall in love with the idea of working with you.
If you’re ready to fall in love with selling and you’re ready to take your business to the next level, give me a call. Let me show you how much fun it is to sell, let me teach you to love selling!
