Have you struggled with sales in your business? For some people, the word sales doesn’t feel good. You started your business because you love the transformation you offer for your clients and the stellar products and services that you offer. And then, you realized, “I need to be great at turning offers into sales.” But, you don’t like being sold to. Let’s face it- no one likes to be sold. People want to find great, helpful services and products. Introducing my guest, Jaime Rowe, who specializes in taking non-sales people into the world of selling in a way that is luxurious, powerful, and gentle.
Jaime Rowe is your non-conforming sales strategist teaching women in business how to do sales the feminine way. She loves working with creative thinkers who need a system and structure to make sales feel seamless. Her favorite part of business is showing women that when they stop selling themselves short and put themselves first, results happen. Because confidence stems from inspiration and you’re the best inspiration there is. Whether she’s teaching or speaking, Jaime’s number one motivation is to empower more women to lead with impact and unlock their feminine sales success. Visit Jaime Rowe’s Website
Show Notes:
Facing the Fear of Selling
Jaime: When I work with my clients, I know one of their biggest fears when they start a business, they’re super passionate about what they’re selling and offering, but when it comes to selling, that’s the scary part. A lot of them have never really sold before. But when you own your business, you really have to be the first best salesperson in your company.
Sheri: What do you say to all these women who are so afraid of selling, doing it wrong or sounding too salesy?
Jaime: It’s a common challenge and I’ve been there when I was selling my services years ago. I thought selling meant that I had to be manipulative, slimy, and sleazy. I mean think about like the quintessential salesperson, used car salesman. And I’m just like, “Oh my gosh! If I am good at sales, does that mean I’m like that person and that person to me is not a good person?” So I completely rejected sales. That’s not who I am. If I have a great product or service, people will just come to me, right Sheri? They’ll know that I’m really good at this. I was a pet photographer for years, stayed home with the kids. I did it on the weekends and I ended up photographing some celebrities and some covers magazines. I just thought that people would know who I was.
I got really frustrated one day I was looking at my numbers and I said, this is not where I want to be. And I had this shift in my mindset. “I can figure this out, I believe in myself, I have a great service.” I’m understanding what my worth is and my impact to this world. I hired coaches in speaking, business, and a sales coach. I also took emotional sales coach training, boot camps, read every book and listened to podcasts. Through that whole transformation process, I had a business where I started from scratch. It was nothing and I brought it $2 million in 26 months.
Taking some deep breaths, shifting my mindset, understanding my worth and connecting with my authentic self. When you do that, you’re never selling, you’re just having a conversation, just connecting with someone on a deeper level, understanding what they need and not manipulating selling what and serving them.
Jaime 4:46 Because that’s how I wanted to sell, like I wish I was talking with a friend. How do I be who I am, but also sell. Selling can be somewhat like this dirty word, right? So, making that mind shift was a big step.
How to Practice Closing
Sheri: Another thing that comes up frequently from the years that I’ve been coaching with people is, when they have service businesses, they’re doing a one-on-one type of close, like a conversation. Maybe they’re a coach and doing a strategy session, and they’re doing great. They get all the way to the end and when they get to the point of talking about their package, their energy drops, their throat gets tight or they don’t give their offer. Or they’re having such a great time during the conversation; they forget to tell people out there that they’re selling something. What advice do you have for people to make that smooth transition between finishing up a strategy session, and then making that transition into the part of the “if you want to work with me, this is how we can work together” piece in the conversation?
Jaime: Yeah, absolutely! I’ve been there myself where your throat closes up. I get tension in my stomach, my solar plexus. We want to find what that core belief is. What’s holding me back from sharing my offer? Is it the fear of rejection? Is it I don’t feel like I’m worth it? Is it just not believing in what I’m offering? Sometimes it’s something unconscious, and I say, let’s get the flashlight out and shine some light on it, let’s move it up to the conscious state so we can work with it at that point. Once we understand the awareness, the core, what’s happening underneath, then we start working on some more practical things, sometimes we really need to practice it. And I say that if we believe it, we need to say it. So sometimes even saying our price, the word dollars, we get stuck on that. So if you sell your packages at $2,000 and use that as an example. When you practice, you would actually use different words. For example, you could say “Here’s my package, and it’s 2000 bananas. Or my package is 2000 monkeys”. Once we get comfortable with 2000, then we start moving up to $2,000. Then we practice and we speak to a plant. Plants are not going to judge you.
Jaime 9:24 Speak to a plant then next maybe if you have a dog or a cat. Do you have a golden retriever, that’s ideal, right? Then practice on a friend, and we move up to a client. It’s just like riding a bike. You can’t expect to ride the bike immediately and do a great job. We need to practice and start small and the other component is to be compassionate with yourself. Compassionate, curious, loving, connecting, slowing things down.
Sheri: I would never have thought of the 2000 bananas and I love it. Because when you’re actually saying $2,000, and you’re seeing 2000 bananas, you’re kind of smiling too, and you’re keeping your energy up. What a fun thing! What I really like about all of this is that the approach is very understanding on a soul level of what people are going through, but also finding ways to keep it light. I know for my own selling. I was one of those people. When I first started my business 14 years ago, I don’t think I had my first client until the first six months because I was so afraid of rejection, scared to say my offer, I was terrible at it. I think that makes me really compassionate coach because I know that feeling.
What else? If someone said to you, how can I be better at sales? What would you say?
How to Get Better at Selling
Jaime: 14:00 Being better at sales starts with you getting to know your authentic self. Because if we don’t know our unique strengths, we can’t communicate that value to the person across from us. If we can’t do it, then we’re not going to be confidently closing sales at all. I think it starts with clarifying your unique strengths and truly knowing what you’re bringing to the table. And sometimes that may mean spending time with a coach or a therapist and releasing what no longer serves us. I’ve worked with one particular woman and she would have all these leads come in and would forget to follow up with them. 48% of salespeople don’t follow up. If you want to immediately get results, just follow up. It’s as simple as that. She was not following up with clients, because she did not feel worthy. I say sometimes when we have a lot of self-sabotage or trauma, every time we walk into a room, we have a big bag of garbage on our back with a prospect, we just drop it in the middle. And it stinks. The prospect can feel it. Get those pieces of garbage out, over time, with love and compassion for ourselves, we’re going to remove pieces out of that garbage bag until we walk into the room, our true selves. And then we can connect to that other person sitting across from us. Because that’s truly why we’re here. We’re here to serve our purpose. I can’t do that if I have garbage on my back.
Sheri 18:56 Whenever you’re trying to do something big, there’s this point where your body and your ego want to return to what was comfortable. I see that sabotage comes forward. And part of that sabotage is “Ooh, this feels really stretchy and new for me, and I want to go back to where it was comfortable.” It’s important to make it through that stage. And recognizing that it’s a normal process to have some self-sabotage come up when you’re trying to level up.
Sheri: You’ve talked about so much here. What do people need to take home with them today? What is the one or two ideas that people should take away from today?
Jaime: A key component is that when you show up, as your authentic self to a sales meeting, you’re never selling. If you show up authentically, you’re never selling, you’re just connecting with someone else. Sometimes I think we forget, it’s two souls connecting. That’s what I would love to leave with everyone today.
The Sheri Kaye Hoff Show for Living Joyfully in your Biz and Life. Create More Freedom, Happiness, and Success. Sheri is a business coach, consultant, mindset mastery expert, and personal development, expert. She is a best-selling author of transformational books and a near-death survivor. She is a noted radio show guest, keynote speaker, and workshop leader. Sheri uses a coaching approach that is action-oriented, intuitive, inspiring, and energy-boosting. She lives in beautiful Colorado and is married (for over 25 years) with three children, three step-children, and four grandchildren. Sheri loves inspiring happiness, family dinners, dancing, football, golf, wine, the beach, and the mountains. You can also listen to the podcast by saying “Alexa, play the Sheri Kaye Hoff Show” This podcast is syndicated globally including your favorite podcast player and is available on youtube
