Making it easier to buy (avoiding the hard sell)

You need three things for someone to buy from you.

1. Motivation
2. Finances
3. Certainty

Some people think they aren't good at sales because they struggle to convert people.

Most times, you're just talking to the WRONG people.

100% Motivation, 0% Finances = Can't buy

0% Motivation, 100% Finances = No need to buy

Then there is No.3

0% Certainty = You're a gamble.

In all the sales books they will tell you all the sales tactics, but the truth is you can't sell to someone who can't afford you, doesn't need you or doesn't trust you.

Each of those 3 elements stack together to make the sale smoother and more likely to close. They make the value equation stack up (more on that later).

The more well stacked you are, the easier to you make the buying decision. By making it easier to buy you avoid the hard sell and pushy sales tactics.

If you are finding issues in your sales calls where people just aren't converting in the numbers you'd expect, it's often not your sales skills that are the problem.

It's the sales funnel.

The easiest way to sell is getting people who want what you sell and have the money to pay for it in your funnel.

Who is coming into the funnel?

Why did they come in?

Making it easier to buy requires you to align your offer, supporting information, benefits and features so its as clear as day. From connection to call, you have to be speaking the language of the people who want it and will pay for it.

Generating lots of leads is great, but in reality, you only want leads that have a likelihood of converting. If every lead has different goals and objectives, how can you make it simple for them to quickly see the value?

Want but no money

Filling your funnel with people who can't buy or don't see the need to buy is pointless. I call these people dreamers. They have all the dreams and desires but either don't have the money or aren't seriously motivated to part with the money.

Your offer, the service you are selling should be relevant and speak to the prospect where they are at. It should acknowledge their objectives and also speak to the challenges they may have.

You need to do this in perfect balance.

I'm continually surprised by prospective clients of mine whose message speaks to dire consequences and at the same time complains they get very needy clients.

Most of us are selling a positive, aspirational product or service that makes life better for our prospects. We are selling something which moves our client forward.

So be careful with your message that it doesn't shift to messianic messaging - "Here to save you from the depths of hell"

Don't be a saviour.

Your outcomes should align with your ideal client's.

Go over the top on the goals and dreams and you get people who talk the talk but cannot or don't want to walk the walk.

• BPBB -Big Plans But Broke
• BPNS - Big Plans Not Serious

Neither should you go over the top of your pain points. Go big on pain and problems and you attract needy people:

• BPAB -Big Problems And Broke
• BPAG - Big Problems And Gambling

If you're selling a ￡10k service, you don't want to be selling to someone where ￡10k is stretch. You want to sell to someone where ￡10k is an investment they take seriously, of course, but you don't want people placing bets on their credit card.

Who needs you that can pay you ￡10k and not feel it?

Who needs your help reaching a destination and ￡10k feels like a fair market price?

I can teach a solopreneur making ￡50k how to use LinkedIn and charge them ￡190 for my online course. Likewise, I can help a CEO of a Stock-market listed company leverage their LinkedIn and they'll pay me ￡4k a day for 1:1 advice and consulting services. The principles are the same, but how it is leveraged and for what end goal matters.

Your messaging, your content, your positioning all brings people into your funnel.

The choice of lead magnet, post and what you say in DMs could resonate with one person and be totally irrelevant for another.

Trying to convince twenty-somethings earning ￡25k a year to invest in a ￡3k mindset coaching programme is a tough slog.

But try to sell that to a business owner who is hit a ￡1m revenue ceiling in their business a ￡3k business mindset coaching programme - now that's got possibilities.

Both may need your help, both can use your principles and methods, but both have different situations, but if you want to make a good living, I'd not be betting on the twenty-something.

The principles and processes might be the same, but the message is different.

Don't spend time creating content, messaging or positioning your offer for people who can't afford you.

You're making life difficult for yourself.

Focus on the people who have the motivation and the means to pay.

Stacking the value

The end result plays a vital part in the value equation.

When we define who we serve, the end result has to align with what they value. Using my example above, how I would communicate my ￡190 course will be very different to my CEO 1:1 consulting.

What they both want to achieve is different.

A CEO of a global company doesn't care about winning clients on LinkedIn. A CEO has a totally different set of priorities. They value the communication channel, brand exposure and relationships more than the leads.

When we see an offer, we stack up the value against the downsides:

Everything is stacked up against the end result.

People value end results differently, your clientele will value it by one of the following benefits:

• Money - a direct financial benefit.
• Time - How quickly or a time related gain
• Performance - How it improves something
• Ego - What it does for their image, perception or emotions

We stack it all up in our heads and work out if it's worth it. We do this in seconds. It isn't objective, it's a gut feeling we calculate with our emotions.

So, look at the equation.

How can you tailor your offer, to reduce the potential downsides?

The higher the price, longer the timescale, more emotional investment, effort and risk, the more that diminishes the perceived value of the offer itself.

For example, how can you reduce the timescale or risk on the clients part?

One big way to do that is CERTAINTY

Certainty cancels out risk.

The more we increase the certainty of the end result, the more we eat a way at the risk factor.

How do you increase certainty?

In many cases it's simple

• Share more valuable content - that helps your prospective clients
• Share more testimonials and reviews from clients and customers
• Repetitive messaging, being consistent in your message and offer
• Be known for longer - longevity is the key to unlocking higher trust

Re-position for a better 2024.

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