🎯 Work Smart Wednesday - October 9, 2024
Hate sales? Here is what to do instead, The Einstein Conundrum, and a quote on being ahead
Work Smart Wednesday
👋 Hey there!
Here is your fortnightly dose of Work Smart Wednesday.
In these emails I will share with you 3 things to help you work smarter.
1. 💼 Hate sales? Here is what to do instead
My client, Colin, is a back pain expert. He is excellent at helping people overcome their back pain so they can live happy lives.
Colin gets a good number of discovery-style free advice call bookings via his YouTube channel where he gives genuinely free no-obligation advice to help people. This advice has been some of the best I have known any coach to give for free - he has had people tell him that his free advice has brought them back from the edge of suicide and others beg him to let them pay him because his free advice has helped them so much.
However, only a small number of those extremely helpful discovery calls have led to sales. Why? Don’t all the business gurus out there say we just need to provide value and money will come to us? We clearly provide value, why don’t we get sales?
I ask Colin to record a few of his calls and to send me the recordings to review. The problem became clear immediately: Colin was uncomfortable selling (just as many people are!).
Now, I never advocate or practice hard selling. I firmly believe that you should never try to “convince” somebody to buy from you. In my opinion, selling is about providing people with the information they need to make an informed decision and to take action. Sales is about providing solutions, about helping people.
We always “sell” with integrity, ask the customer questions to better understand their problem and then suggest the solutions you think will genuinely help them (even when that solution is not something you sell! Trust me, it pays off in the long run).
Colin was a self-proclaimed hater of sales and salesyness. We will tackle that root problem together, but we needed a more immediate solution. How can you sell when you hate selling?
There is a very simple switch you can do to help improve your selling without being salesy: ask the person what they want the next step to be.
What would you like the next step to be? In an ideal world, what would I do next to best help you?
This switches the onus on you selling, to the customer selling to you. More often than not, they will outline exactly what they want you to do. If you can do it, fantastic, you can explain to them how the next steps work with you. If you can’t do it, fantastic, now you can explain to them what they can do to find that solution elsewhere and you have a better idea of what customers want. It is a win-win. Rather than “convincing”, you’re now simply listening and helping.
Colin made the switch and immediately closed his next two sales calls. He has been consistently converting clients ever since.
You don’t need to be in a position where clients are begging to pay you for this switch to work. Try it on your next sales call, it works.
Asking simple questions transformed Colin’s sales success (2 minute clip)
2. ⚛️ The Einstein Conundrum
I recently read something I am terming the Einstein Conundrum in a satirical comic book I enjoy called The Dilbert Principle. It goes like this:
“Imagine you're having a conversation with Albert Einstein and he suddenly gets struck by lightening. This freak accident instantly makes him twice as smart. Would you be able to tell the difference?
Once a person is smarter than you (or one step ahead), it doesn't matter if they are one percent smarter or one thousand percent smarter. You can't tell the difference.”
While this is said in jest in the book, I do believe that the principle often holds true and it can be useful for your business.
Often, when starting a business or working with clients, people feel inadequate because they know that other people out there know more than them. This is related to the Dunning-Kruger effect, you know enough to know you don’t know everything.
Unfortunately, when people know they don’t know everything they often stop offering the knowledge that they do have to those that want it. They let their imposter syndrome prevent progress.
We all feel a little imposter syndrome sometimes, I believe that is part of being a person who pushes the boundaries and explores the areas outside their comfort zone. Entrepreneurs.
This is your reminder that you can help people who want to get to the stage you’re already at. You don't need to be the world expert, you just need to be a few steps ahead of the person you're speaking with.
Go forth, get started, help people.
🆕 This month’s resource for referrals has been updated - you can now earn my template “What makes a great offer: a checklist”.
🎁 Receive rewards for referring your friends 🎁
📩 A document outlining exactly what you need to include in your offer. Do you have a great offer? Is your offer impacting your sales?
This custom template is not sold anywhere, you can only get it by sending Work Smart Wednesday to your friend. I rotate these templates monthly. This template is only available in October.
3. 💡 Quote I'm pondering
"You need to get to the future, ahead of your customers, and be ready to greet them when they arrive” - Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce
Regardless of your business, your job is almost certainly to get people from point A to point B in some kind of metaphorical journey. Sometimes, the people you help might not know what point B actually looks like yet.
You should never need to convince or force people to start their journey to point B. They will start when they’re ready. Your job is to help them understand that they are at point A, that point B exists, and the ways in which they can get to point B.
You need to see and experience that better future, to be that step ahead, and to be ready to help the people who are on their journey to get there.
👋 Want to work together?
When you’re ready, here are 2 ways I can help you:
🔍 Clarity Call - We will discuss your situation and create a step-by-step action plan together so you know exactly what you need to do next for maximum impact
🧩 Are we a good fit together? - See whether you and I are a good fit together by answering this short quiz. You will immediately see whether or not we are a good fit, and receive a personalised answer for what the next best step will be for you based on your answers.
That's it! I can't wait to hear what you think. What did you find most useful? What do you want more or less of? Reply to this email now and let me know
Also, if you have anything interesting to share, I want to know about it😊
Have a great week,
John
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