In my last blog post, I laid out the scene that was the beginning of my coaching business.  Crappy leads and even crappier results when it came time to sell those prospects into my services. I have since learned/created a system for selling and owned my value…and those two things have made all the difference!

In an effort to help those who might be struggling to find their selling stride, I’ll be sharing the 5 steps that make up my system. (In fact, you can listen to this live on June 2nd when I’m dong a webinar based on these principles.  Register for that call at http://www.happyinbusiness.com/coming-events/how-to-sell-without-feeling-salesy/)

When you learn this and really integrate this, you will not only feel confident in the selling conversation, but realize you have a DUTY to share your wisdom, knowledge and expertise with your prospects.

Step 1- OWN YOUR VALUE. Sounds silly, but if you don’t know the gifts you bring, the changes you create, and the lifetime shifts that are possible when working with you, then when that ever important, “So how much do you charge” question comes, you are at risk of backing down. What happens here? Beyond not having the selling system and confidence, I have found that heart-based service providers tend to bog down in getting in their prospect’s financial situation. (“They don’t have the $, so I’d feel guilty asking for my full fee.”) This, my dear readers, is NOT yours to worry about!!!

How to find the value you bring?  ASK!  Since this mainly lives in our blind spot, you’ll need to check with your clients. The very first client I ever signed up (after those 41 failures, lol) was a woman who came to me as a stay-at-home-mom with not even a vision. We took her from that to a licensed landscape contractor bringing in over $300k in 2.5 years. When I asked her what she got from working with me, the answer she gave SHOCKED me. I knew what I THOUGHT we had done and how I had helped, because in my mind we had gotten her business started, worked on team/leadership stuff, mindset issues, etc. But what she said was, “As a result of working with you I know I’m 5 years ahead of anyone else who would have started on the same day.  You shortened my learning curve by YEARS.” The reason I share this story is because I HAD NO IDEA! Really. It never occurred to me until I asked. And once I had that little testimonial, my confidence sky rocketed. So just doing that one thing can make a huge difference in your ability to ask for the sale. But you’ll have to ask and ask and ask deeper questions. Here’s an article I wrote awhile back about using testimonials to help you formulate how to ask the questions a bit better.

Stay tuned for my next post where I’ll walk you through a sample conversation that is key to truly converting prospects into clients.   Click here to go to the next post in the series.  And I’d love to hear how you go about owning your value.  Did you use testimonials?  Ask your coach or clients?  What has worked?  Please feel free to share.