When you sell, there are two things going on simultaneously. There’s the value your client is getting because you’re helping them solve a problem and there’s what you’re getting: compensation, recognition, accolades, and revenue.
You willingly offer your products, services, and expertise to solve your client’s problems and help them achieve their goals. Your clients willingly offer you compensation so you will help them get what they want. You’re giving them something and, in exchange, they are giving something to you.
However, it gets messy if the sale defines who you are and who you are not. There’s nothing wrong with having an investment in making the sale. It’s normal; and who doesn’t want to make money, increase market share, or serve more clients?
But when you get attached and create a personalized investment in the sale, that’s when you might start selling from fear.
It’s one thing to want to succeed and another to bind your identity and worth to your success.
A subtle way selling from fear appears is when we take responsibility or claim fame for the results our clients receive. When selling from love you must realize that you are not the person making the transformation happen. Your client is responsible for that. When you place yourself as the star of your client’s transformation, that is selling from fear.
Selling from fear focuses on you being the hero who came to save your client from the problems and hardships they are experiencing. When selling from love, it’s not for you to save the day; it’s your client. Your client is the hero and star of their own story. They make the decision to change, they take the necessary actions, they ultimately benefit from the changes they choose to make.
You’ll notice fear emerge in your client’s transformation when your identity, worth, and value are invested in the outcomes your client achieves as a result of working with you. In other words, in some way, you’ve tied your worth and value to the results your clients get.
For example, a financial adviser prepares a financial plan that their client follows to a T. By the end of the year, they are debt-free and have three months’ worth of salary saved in their bank account. Now if the financial adviser believed that he was the one that did that, that would be selling from fear. The financial plan and the guidance he provided facilitated the change for this client. But really, it was the client who managed the cash flow, said no to frivolous spending, and said yes to putting money away towards an emergency fund. The client is the hero, not the financial adviser. The adviser played an important role—it was through his advice, guidance, and expertise that his client was able to achieve their goals. He acted as the facilitator and his clients delivered on the transformation.
To sell from love your role is to facilitate change, but your role is not to make the change for your clients. You are walking alongside them, guiding, championing, and coaching them all the way through. You do play an important role in your client’s transformation. You, through your product, service, and expertise act as the facilitator of their transformation.
When we stop making ourselves the do-er, owner and star of our client’s outcomes and results it takes the pressure off. This pressure only cripples us from moving forward, putting ourselves out there, inviting clients to work with us, because we’ve taken on too much responsibility, attached our identity to our sales results, and measure our self worth to the outcomes our clients achieve. It’s a subtle, easily undetectable shift that occurs. We go from being service-oriented to self-serving, from selling from love to selling from fear.
Your client needs you to provide a way for them to get what they most want. Using your offer, you guide them towards the transformation they are seeking. Holding yourself as a facilitator takes the responsibility away from you making the transformation for your client. This lessens the chance of selling from fear to show up because the burden to make something happen falls on your client’s shoulders and not yours.
There’s a lightness in knowing you are guiding and providing your client with a way to solve their problems, achieve their goals, honor their values, and fulfill their dreams, without feeling the need to do all the work to make the change happen for them – that is their job.
Now it’s over to you.
What is your experience of selling? Where do you get stuck?
Drop me a line at finka@finka.ca to let me know.
Have you heard? Sell From Love Academy is HERE!
- Do you want to get clients, but you don’t know how to sell yourself and your work?
- Do you want to grow your business, but you’re not connecting with your ideal clients or closing the sales you need to generate the revenue you want?
- Do you want learn how to build your reputation, attract clients and ask for referrals, in a way that honours your personality and upholds your integrity?
Then you need to check out Sell From Love Academy.
Right now you can take advantage of the Founding Member Package. Check it out all the details here.
In this 7-week online program you will learn how to focus on integrity, courage, and love to:
- Use your unique gifts, talents, and expertise to build a business you love.
- Navigate confidently through selling fears, uncertainties, and doubt.
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- Close sales naturally and find more purpose and meaning in your work.
Are you ready? Learn more here.
I’d love to have you join me.
With love,
Finka
