How Claire Lew Learned How to Sell Without Selling Her Soul

I recently spoke with Claire Lew who’s the CEO of Know Your Company.

In this interview Claire shares eight tips that helped her learn how to sell without selling her soul.

By way of context, here's what Know Your Company does:

1. Pick a Problem You Hate

“It was a problem that killed me. I was so, so frustrated by it.”

2. Understand the Circumstances That Cause Customers to Buy

(So you can attract similar customers.)

"The first thing I needed was to be an expert on why people bought."

3. Get a Coach

The outside perspective and expertise can help you convert more demos into customers.

"I do my best selling when I'm listening."

4. Leverage Customer Success Stories to Increase Sales

Customer interviews allow you to develop a big book of success stories. You can then pull out the most relevant story based on  the prospect you're speaking with. 

"Just like you" stories are very persuasive because people can see themselves achieving similar results.

"It's worked for people just like you, therefore it's going to work for you."

5. Protect Your Time by Pre-qualifying Leads

If you're a one person company with a "high touch" sale and don't have time to quality every lead, using a qualification form is really effective because you end up talking to prospects that you can best serve.

"When you pre-qualify, your customers are like super users because you know your product is going to work."

6. Help People Be More Awesome When Following Up

I read a stat somewhere that something like 80% of sales are made on the 5th to 12th contact. (I have no idea if that's true or where people come up with these stats, but it does compliment Claire's clip below).

But how do you follow up in a way that's not annoying?

Here's Claire:

"Instead of pinging people and saying hey are you interested, send content that's helpful."

7. Speaking at Conferences Drives Targeted Leads

In Rework, Jason Fried talks about selling more by out-teaching the competition. (Similar to how chefs that sell cookware teach you how to cook.) 

Claire attended conferences to teach potential customers about the problems her product helps solve.

Here's Claire on how to become a speaker at a conference:

8. Work Small Clubs Before Thinking About the HBO Special

In the beginning scale by doing things that don't scale.

Here's Claire:

Oh and Here's One Fact About Claire That Might Surprise You

One last thing . . .

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