by Laura West
How are you doing at having sales conversations?
Usually that phrase ‘sales conversations” strikes fear and doubt in the heart of joy-driven entrepreneurs!
I had to learn how to fall in love with the sales conversation. (It is possible!) I was told in my early 20’s that I sucked at sales. My first job out of college was with a newspaper in Virginia selling advertising. I did an internship my senior year in college and went full time into selling advertising. I seemed to do pretty well for about 2 years and then this one manager, well, she just didn’t like me and my style.
Ok, a bit of background, this particular manager exemplified the old stereotype of “woman in army boots” management style. She was loud and tough and was more about the sale than the relationship. (Plus, she smoked cigarettes and drank a lot of coffee and covered it all up with Charlie perfume. Remember that? She kept a big bottle in the console of her car. Needless to say, whenever we were invited for a ride along, we always had an excuse for why we had to meet her there!)
She told me quite frequently how I sucked at sales because I sat down with clients and talked to them about their goals instead of pushing them into buying more advertising than last year. Once I changed jobs and became a marketing manager (on the other side of the sales desk!) I forgot about this.
Until almost 20 years ago when I started my own business. And I realized that I was back to making sales!
Of course, I was passionate about coaching and had a desire to make a positive difference in the world, but all that enthusiasm wasn’t enough to erase those messages about being a terrible salesperson.
In fact, my pain of sales and fear of being salesy, prompted me to develop a way to use my natural talents and skills and caring compassion to become an amazing “salesperson.” I developed a system I call Elegant Enrollment. I don’t ever feel salesy. I’m not pushy. And I love talking to people about how I can help them.
This week I taught a class on my Elegant Enrollment system in the Joyful Business Studio, my monthly membership program.
If you have doubt, fright or fear or just a general queasiness about sales then you’ll want to get this training!
You can join us in the Joyful Business Studio and get the recording from this month’s training on Elegant Enrollment.
PLUS, when you join by tomorrow (Friday), you’ll get access to the entire library of Joyful Business trainings, a private coaching call with me, the Joyful Business plan and an amazing community of joy-centered entrepreneurs!
And you get the monthly Joyful Business training calls and Group Coaching Calls. A wonderful support for you so you don’t have to be freestyling it on your own. (That’s a lonely road.)
As always, let me know if you have any questions, and I look forward to getting to know your business even better.
PS: One more reminder! If you have a desire to get away to work on your business, then I’d love to invite you to join me at the oceanfront this October in Virginia for the Creative Business Retreat by-the-Sea. It’s my annual retreat for women entrepreneurs who want rejuvenation, rejoicing and redesign for what’s next in their business and life! Our theme this year is Business Alchemy. We only have 2 spots left in this intimate gathering so let me know if you want to talk about the retreat and see if it’s a good fit. You can find the juicy details at Creative Business Retreat by-the-Sea.
