Sales Is Life

[Sales for those who hate the idea of selling]

For those who feel like selling is a skill, we might never have.

Or it’s the domain of experts who dedicate their lives to closing large deals.

Consider this.

You transact every time you connect with someone and solve a problem for them.

You need to persuade them to trust you and give you time.

You need to have them believe in your solution and try it.

You take “payment” in terms of kudos, thanks, praise, recommendations to others, favours in return, or simply respect.

Every day we are selling.

We sell when we persuade our family to eat pizza instead of pasta.

We sell when we convince our friends to come to a party instead of going home.

We sell when we recommend a new Netflix series to our colleagues.

Selling is part of everyday life.

We boost the perception of our popularity and personal brand by sharing Instagram photos of our holidays and adventures.

We stoke the emotions of people we date or work with by how we dress, behave socially, or predict or promise project outcomes.

We introduce new ideas, persuade, negotiate, handle objections and influence parents, siblings, and friends daily.

When we get into a business context, we overcomplicate the selling process.

We speak in technical terms about our service, getting super granular and specific about methods rather than telling the bigger story and connecting with emotions and experiences.

Or we get super shy about selling, feeling our audience needs to be more sophisticated to be pitched.

When we get process-oriented, we ignore the important headlines of the cost of problems, the value of results, and the breakthroughs along the way.

We fall into the cardinal sin of talking about ourselves instead of our prospects, their situation and challenge, and their desired outcome.

We must remember to connect with our prospects to build desire by talking about their challenge and building trust while pointing to evidence of outcomes.

We might find our work easier if we remember how we sell every day and bring these principles into business sales.

Sales Is Life | Jen Bishop consulting best lead generation agency

Iterating Your Offer For Product Market Fit

Prospects come to us asking for help to generate leads.

They do not have a consistent pipeline of new deals to draw on.

They lack sufficient time to generate leads.

However, if prospects have tried cold outreach, it doesn’t work for them.

And if they come to us to practice some dark arts of marketing and sales to bring them the business, they cannot generate for themselves-

The reality is that its’ probably an offer design problem.

A product market fit problem.

Marketing and sales are like the flowers at the top of the stems of plants.

They are the fruit that attracts the birds and the bees to the business.

The real value lies far beneath the surface, something very powerful but often unseen.

The DNA of their seeds determine what they look and smell like, and the roots deep in the soil ensure they have the nutrients and strength to grow tall and strong.

We cannot doctor the flowers and petals and hope they grow differently.

We have to get to the root of the matter.

The same with fixing an offer-design problem.

A new Instagram tactic, LinkedIn post, or YouTube short won’t fix an offer-design problem.

Messages resonate with audiences when they have roots in services and solutions to deeply painful and challenging problems.

The message can be clearly stated and sound like the most beautiful music in the ears of the one who hears it or the most beautiful flower to the eyes that see it.

Strong offers have a DNA that fixes, heals, and mends deeply troubling problems.

Is your business like a hospital fixing deeply painful problems for your target demographic?

If it is not, or if your target demographic is not responding to your offer, you may need to go back and listen more closely to the market's needs and wants.

Is your marketing message like food and drink to your audience?

Do they consume it like it’s nourishing their soul and solving a deep heartfelt yearning?

If not, you need to inhabit the community of your market for more time and understand more intimately what they want and need.

Think about the size of the business, its maturity, current problems, what they are doing to fix the problem, what they are investing in, or what they have tried.

Have you created something that creates a guaranteed result they are looking for? Or is it a result YOU think they should be looking for?

What do THEY want [forget what you think they want]?

Once these offer design questions are solved at the DNA level, you plant lots of flowers.

And you know that the flowers that grow will attract the right bees.

No gimmick tactic will solve a problem that comes from the roots.

Iterating Your Offer For Product Market Fit I Jen Bishop consulting best lead generation agency and marketing lead generation

Why Sales Is Like Hospitality

We can feel that sales is an activity that ASKS for people’s time, money, and attention.

Sales is ASKING for business.

Sales entail INVADING someone's space.

Sales is PUSHING people to buy

Sales is the OPPOSITE of serving people, RIGHT?

I used to think so, too, until I followed a guy online who gave great advice about growing a business.

I digested everything he taught about creating a great offer, scaling the business and operations, charging higher fees, etc.

He created so much value that I paid him several thousand dollars to learn from him.

Then one day, he said he was closing down his offer to focus on high-end businesses worth $1m or more.

I felt abandoned.

He was doing me and others in my position a disservice by shutting down his offer because we would lack his input and support.

It was the first time I realized that sales was a service and solving people’s problems is indeed making the world a better place.

I wanted to become a business owner that people would MISS if I were not there to solve their problems.

There are several correlations between sales and hospitality, and here are just a few:

• Caring for those who suffer [hospitals and hospitality come from the same root word] by fixing broken things and healing hurts

• Building community by welcoming people into connection with others

• Concierge people and making invitations for them to the next step

• Sharing food and drink - nourishing people

A: Sales and hospitality are concerned with caring for those who suffer and solving painful and tangible problems for people and businesses. People will willingly pay a doctor for healing and thank the doctor warmly for the service.

B. Sales and hospitality are about intentionally meeting the right people with a painful and tangible problem and building community. If we gather people of a common interest together, we can continue to deliver value to them. When we bring them into a community and get to know them better, we can always improve the solutions we are building while connecting them to each other and to ourselves more deeply.

C. Sales and hospitality are about inviting people and concierge them to move forward. We don’t wait for people to ask us for solutions. We gather them and then continue to make them offers and give them options, inviting them to seek help in this way or to try that solution. We guide them through the complex process of growth, making it as easy and comfortable as possible.

D. Sales and hospitality are about providing food and drink, nurture, and nourishment. We continue to provide value in education, information, advice, tips, insight, and learnings to keep them strong, growing, and confident of their future.

Our goal as business owners is to become the person others feel abandoned by if you were NOT selling our service to them rather than someone they resent.

Make your sales as good as hospitality, and your business will thrive.

Why Sales Is Like Hospitality | Jen Bishop consulting best lead generation agency