Why Every Entrepreneur Needs to Know How To Sell More

Certified NLP Success Coach Laura Payne-Stanley shares with us why entrepreneurs are leaving money on the table by not knowing their worth and how to sell elegantly.

As an entrepreneur there are many different hats you have to wear; from being creative, to marketers, to financial wizards and sales people. Whilst all of these roles are important, ultimately a business will live and die by its ability to sell its services. 

This can be far removed from the lightbulb moments that entrepreneurs had when they launched their business from a passion.  In fact in today’s overcrowded market places I believe that entrepreneurs need to be super sales people to get their voice heard and increase conversions to not leave sales on the table. 

Laura Payne Stanley

Laura Payne Stanley

However, sales for many goes deeper than a simple task, in fact many people as soon as you mention the word “sales” will be triggered to thinking as to what sales means for them.  This can be their first experiences of ‘sleazy’ and ‘pushy’ car salesmen and the idea of SELLING can actually make some people break out in a cold sweat. 

Based on many years of working with entrepreneurs and using the techniques of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) I believe there are 6 key areas that people need to look at to improve their selling game:

1. Know Your Worth
It might sound an easy solution, and it is, but when we don’t know the true value of our services and what we need to charge to make a profitable business, it becomes easy for customers to negotiate our rates, ask for discounts and haggle. 

2. How to create aligned offers
You and your customers are part of the same tribe and we need to be creating offers, bundles and packages that our customer wants AND feels aligned for you to pitch to a client.   If you aren’t comfortable with your packages and prices, your customer isn’t going to be either. 

3. Increase Confidence
Not every entrepreneur is born with excessive confidence especially when it comes to selling products and services.  Yet whether an extrovert or introvert we need to be able to raise our confidence to be able to sell products and services in any situation, from business meetings, networking to dinner parties.  Potential customers, referrals and opportunities are around every corner. 

4. Customer Sales Cycle
Not all customers buy the same way.  As an entrepreneur you must understand how your ideal customer likes to purchase your services and their sales process.  This also includes the decision making process before purchase - does your customer need to get sign off from someone not in the sales conversation?  

5. Objections
It would be unfair to say that objections aren’t going to happen, and the truth is that at some point you will encounter objections to your sales - too expensive, not the right time or it isn’t going to work for them.  Many entrepreneurs with lower confidence or without the knowledge to handle objections try to leave the conversation as quick as possible at this junction, rather than managing the objections to increase conversion.  Hint – the first objection isn’t always the right one. 

6. Elegant Conversations
One reason many entrepreneurs don’t like sales is like I said before, going back to a time when they were sold to and didn’t like the experience.  Whether you are in products or services, the beautiful sales experiences happen when it is part of an elegant conversation that we can all have!

If any of the above has resonated with you and you know that you need to up-level your sales game, then join me on Tuesday 26th June at Hotel du Vin Winchester for Sell MORE Stress LESS the Masterclass