How To Sell Your Agency’s Services Even When You Hate Selling

Did you wake up this morning and think to yourself, "I can't wait to get to the agency so I can call some people and prospect for some new clients?" Or maybe couldn't wait to fire up the laptop and send that unsolicited cold email that you know is probably not getting read. Or maybe you're going to connect with a few folks on LinkedIn and wait days and days and days, only to find out that they didn't accept your connection. Was that in your list of daily goals today?

Well if that doesn’t describe you, BUT?you are the person responsible for finding new client prospects for your agency, then this post, my friend, is written just for you.?Give me a few minutes of your time and I’ll show you how to?Sell Greatly ?— a relationship first, help based, digitally centric, sales prospecting approach that will make you a fabulous salesperson, even if you think you hate selling.?

Step One: Reframe Your Goal

Why is generating new clients so important??When I ask that question during my?agency business development workshops , the answer is universally the same — new clients means more money. And that’s why agency owners engage in new client prospecting, even though they hate every minute of it.?

But what if there is a better, more motivating reason for winning new business??What if your goal wasn’t to make more money, but instead, create more freedom? Think about that for a second. If you had a constant stream of new clients, you’d have the freedom to do lots of things, including, but not limited to:

• deciding which of those new clients you might actually wanna work with vs having to work with every potential client that knocks on your door or more likely, sends you their RFP.
• charging more for your services, because if they don't wanna pay it, there's a line of potential clients right behind them that might.
• define how you'll deliver your services vs twisting your agency’s processes to fit an inefficient client workflow.
• set your billing terms vs accepting the client’s “standard billing terms” which usually aren’t all that favorable to you.

Step Two: Stop Doing What You’ve Been Doing

Chances are, if you hate selling, you’re also probably not very good at it. Let’s face it, human beings seldom hate anything they’re good at doing. So for the sake of argument, let’s assume you aren’t very good at selling or?sales prospecting for your agency ?or at least you think you’re not very good at one or both.?

So, what do you do when you’re not very good at something? Especially something that is mission critical to your agency’s success.

You invest your time and effort in the wrong kind of sales education.?

• You read blog posts?like this one, hoping you'll learn a few things or pick up a few tips.?
• You buy books?on?sales prospecting . Some of them are actually helpful. And truth is, books are probably the best educational ROI you can get. If you’re looking for a few good books, I put a list of my favorite, most helpful books?here
• You take an online course.?These are great because they’re self driven, which works for your super busy schedule. If you’re one of these people, we’ve got a great agency business development course?here . Maybe give it a look while you're here since we’ll be reopening registration soon.
• ?You sign up for a webinar…?and another webinar,... and another usually, unhelpful webinar. I feel your pain. Seriously, I’ve stopped attending most webinars and I just watch the recorded version — usually at 2X speed because most of the content sucks. But if you’re willing to take one more chance, here’s a 15-minute,?helpful agency business development webinar?that I did for SharpSpring and folks seemed to like it.

But here’s the rub.?If you don't really like sales prospecting, you're not really gonna devote yourself to getting good at it, because who wants to get good at something they don't really like to do? Right? Sure, you might read the books, sit through the webinars, etc., but to truly master something, you have to have the passion to master it. Otherwise, you’re primarily just going through the motions.?

But?you have to improve your sales prospecting skills, because the alternative is… you guessed it, doing more sales prospecting! Woot!! Lucky you!?

So you end up calling more people, sending more emails, working longer hours because your agency needs that new client or that consistent influx of new clients. And of course, because you’re not terribly good at prospecting, you grow to hate it even more.?

And that is how your life is going to go until you stop investing in training and knowledge that purports to teach you how to do something in a manner you hate.?

Step Three: Reframe Your Idea of a Sales Conversation

What if a?sales prospecting conversation ?isn't about selling? What if the goal of a sales conversation isn't to sell, but instead to help? Hmmmm, does that really change things or am I just playing with words. Let’s see...

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