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Stop Selling Your Services

Written by: Sandy Schussel

Article Overview: Stop selling---Start attracting business instead. It’s a different mindset—without the pressure on either party.

Stop Selling Your Services

Are you aggressively selling your services and finding that few prospective clients-even those who are clearly in your target market-are buying?

Or, maybe you're struggling to find new clients because you're afraid that if you reach out to people you'll appear to be selling-something you just can't bring yourself to do?

STOP SELLING!

"What is selling?" I ask at the beginning of some of my programs.

The question brings out a variety of answers, most of which provide a window into the thinking of the professionals and entrepreneurs who attend:

"Trying to convince someone to buy what you offer," says one.

"Saying things that persuade someone to agree to buy your services," says another.

"Manipulating someone into realizing he or she has a need for what you offer," a third might say.

"If your view of "selling" your services is something along these lines, it's no wonder that you can't fill your practice or find enough clients for your businesses," I tell them.

"STOP SELLING YOUR SERVICES!"

After pausing for effect, I continue, "If by 'selling' you mean some kind of noisy, pushy, aggressive 'hawking' of your services, you've either discovered or sensed that 'selling' as you've defined it, doesn't work."

"But what if you had a different view of selling?" I ask them. "What if selling was asking appropriate questions so that your prospective clients understand that they need what you offer"?

"Stop selling," I tell them. "Start attracting business instead."

For the rest of the session, we discuss the difference. Among the points I ask them to consider are these:

Develop an "attraction" mindset. What you offer is something valuable, something people want or need. If you have any clients at all, you've already proved that. People need to know about your practice or business. You should be proud to tell them about it. But you don't have to "push" it on them.

Resist the urge to sell and ask great questions instead. The "selling" that doesn't work usually involves identifying a potential client and then trying to "close" him or her on a meeting with you or the purchase of your services.

Tell a prospective client what you do and then ask his permission to explore his situation. The conversation might end right there, but since people do like to buy-and you're not selling--he's likely to agree to let you explore. Once you have permission, ask questions designed to unearth some specific need or desire.

Address the specific need or desire. Then, instead of talking about generic features and advantages of your service, discuss how what you do meets that specific need or desire uncovered by your questions.

Rick owns a cleaning service franchise. He wanted to get more of the people he met during his various "networking" activities to agree to let him give them an estimate. More often than not, he somehow put them off.

Rick demonstrated how he'd start a conversation, find out where the person he was speaking with lived and then made his move: "Mary, I'd love to come out to your home next week and give you an estimate. What day is best for you?"

After some coaching, Rick's conversations went more like this:

Rick: It's basically a residential service, Mary. Do you mind if I ask... do you have a cleaning service?

Mary: No. It's not that I wouldn't like to have one, it's just that they're so expensive and we're really not in a position to afford one.

Rick: Do the two of you have children?

Mary: Yes, three. They're all school age, and they do help with the cleaning, but they get so much homework.

Rick: And you work, too, right? If the cost weren't a big issue, how would a cleaning service help?

Mary: Are you kidding? It would cut 4-5 hours out of my week.

Rick: That sounds great. What would you do with that extra time?

Mary: Well my little one, Tina, needs help with her homework and I'm always trying to squeeze out an extra few minutes here or there.

Rick: It sounds like you don't have the time you need to help Tina. I can't promise that I can make it affordable for you, but would it make sense to get an estimate for cleaning and discuss the different ways we might free up some time for you to work with Tina? How about sometime next week?

Using the "attraction approach," in a few weeks, Rick tripled his appointments from these conversations. He was amazed how easy it was to get people to say "yes."

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Article Tags: mindset, prospective clients, saying things, target market, urge



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