Creating an ethical and gentle sales process
The popular sales tip is to persuade the prospect to buy your coaching.
I know this because I’ve been there too — trying to push/pull and persuade.
That’s soft manipulation. Really.
What if we reframe “handling objections to make a sale” to “coaching your prospect for clarity and assertiveness”?
Less persuasion, more curiosity
When our ultimate goal is to make a sale, we try to persuade and manipulate our prospects into buying our coaching.
To create a gentle and authentic sales process, our ultimate goal needs to be to see if what we offer aligns with the prospect’s needs and to communicate it clearly.
With more persuasion, we may sign up unwilling and uncommitted clients too.
With more curiosity about the prospect’s current state and their dreams, we will be able to sign more aligned clients.
More alignment will create a win-win situation for you and your prospect.
What do I do when they come up with objections?
Coach them.
Let me remind you. You’re a coach. Coach them.
If they come up with an objection — “I’m busy, I don’t have enough time”.
Ask them questions to clarify. Don’t ask questions to persuade them in a specific direction.
Here are a few relevant questions to help your prospect get clarity —
“Hmm, okay. How many hours do you think this program would require from you?”
“When would be a better time to pay attention to your xyz goals?”
“What’s the cost of not doing this right now?”
“What’s the cost of doing this right now?”
“What’s the worst-case scenario?”
“What’s the best-case scenario?”
There are so many other questions you could ask, based on the whole context.
Maybe it’s better for your prospect to pause this for now. Maybe it’s in their best interest to sign up right away.
More clarity = Better decisions.
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Your next step
If you wish to learn more about authentic sales and creating clients, you may want to check out my masterclass on this topic.
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