In a hurry and don’t have time to read? Watch the video, instead!
(Click on this sentence to go to the link I talk about in the video!)
Getting to the end of Sally’s email, my heart sank. Well, I thought. That’s that, then. Time to give up.
I was a few months into starting my business, and my hopes for getting my second ever client seemed shot.
On the advice of my new business mentor, Kendrick Shope, I’d offered my (then, very small) mailing list the chance to have a “mini-session” with me: a free, 15 minute consult on Skype. I’d started working with Kendrick – famous for her skills as a Sales Coach – because, having spent my entire pre-entrepreneur life in jobs where people were always selling to me (as a radio DJ, and a music supervisor for hit TV shows) I had NO IDEA how I was supposed to sell anything to anyone.
The idea of selling utterly terrified me.
But Kendrick was changing that.
In a gentle way, she (virtually) took me by the hand and started teaching me the basics of non-icky sales – what she calls Authentic Selling (TM). Part of that, was doing free 15 minute calls, where I cold get to know potential clients, and add value to them before asking for anything in return.
The first call I’d done had gone BRILLIANTLY. Sally* was a coach – exactly the kind of client I loved working with – and we’d really clicked. During the 15 minutes, I felt like I gave her loads of helpful advice, and she seemed really keen to work with me.
*(I’ve changed her name and some details, because: client confidentiality. But all the important bits are absolutely true.)
Afterwards (again, on Kendrick’s advice), I’d sent a follow up email, reminding her of the tips she’d learned in our call and – the scary part for me – telling her how she could work with me. My prices were going up the following week (from $99 to $149!), so I reminded her of that too.
Then, that afternoon, she’d finally written back:
Hi Marsha!
Thanks again so much for your wonderful help on the call! I really would like to work with you, but I don’t think this is the right time for me to spend this money.
Yours,
Sally
So. The money objection.
Surely there was NO WAY I could overcome that without being pushy?
EXCEPT – then I remembered:
Kendrick has an email template for exactly this type of response.
The language in Kendrick’s template wasn’t pushy at all. In fact, it was couched in the idea that I understand what it’s like to feel wary of investing. And this was true! I’d been terrified to invest in working with Kendrick, an amount that, at the time, was equivalent to almost a year’s rent for me.
So, I dug out the email template, what Kendrick calls a “Take ’n’ Tweak”. I took it and I tweaked it. I used the basic concepts Kendrick suggested, “Marsha”’d up the language, took a deep breath, and sent it to Sally.
Twenty minutes later, I saw that Sally had replied. Oh god, I thought. She’s going to call me out for being pushy. I trusted Kendrick – she’s one of the smartest people I’d ever met – but surely ANYONE would hate an email that countered their money objection?
Nervously, I opened the email.
Hi Marsha!
Thank you for your email. I deserve this session. And I know that working with you is going to be worth it. Did you get the payment?
Let me know. I can’t WAIT to work with you!!
Sally
—
I went back out and into my inbox – and there it was:
Her Paypal payment!
My second ever!! No further conversation needed!
That was the first of many, MANY times that Kendrick’s lesson’s about sales have made me money.
Kendrick TOTALLY rewired my brain when it comes to understanding sales. And the email templates (and other resources) that I got from her have supported my new way of thinking about selling.
She taught me about the importance of following up, multiple times, with potential clients (I never used to do this!).
She taught me that authentic selling is about adding value before you ask for the sale (you can add this value in your follow up).
She taught me that, when it comes to sales, the two most powerful words in the English language are (in her Southern accent):
Ah underrrstey-yand.
(for those who don’t speak Southern: “I understand”)
Now, I actively enjoy sales – and frequently end up doing bonus sales coaching for my clients. If you’d told me five years ago that I love talking about sales copy, I’d have laughed out loud – but I do, and I’m great at it!
The good news is, if you want to get the benefit of Kendrick’s genius – and learn how to become AMAZING at selling, in a way that feels genuine and GOOD – then you don’t have to shell out a year’s rent to work with her one-on-one.
This August, Kendrick Shope’s INCREDIBLE course Sales School is back.
You’ll probably notice that I don’t promote very many courses on this blog. That’s because, as a course junkie myself, I don’t want to bamboozle you into buying any course that isn’t right for you. But this one is different.
Sales School is GAME-CHANGING.
As someone who has taken a billion online courses, people often ask me which ones I would suggest. I always say:
“If you’re brand new to being an entrepreneur, take B School. And if you’re already an entrepreneur, but don’t yet have a waiting list of clients desperate to work with you, you MUST take Sal
es School.”
Because, if you can’t sell?
It’s not a business. It’s a hobby.
Kendrick is SO thorough and ALWAYS over-delivers. To show you I mean this, here’s a screenshot of an email I sent her halfway through the first ever Sales School. I didn’t send it to her because I had to (or because I ever planned to print it!). I was just knocked sideways by how incredible this course is and how hard she works for every single person who takes the course:
This year, Sales School has a number of different affiliates – like me. This means, if you buy through one of our links, it costs you exactly the same price as it would anywhere else, but you get extra bonuses for FREE. This is because we get a kickback for each Sales School entry we sell, and (as good students of Kendrick!) we know that Authentic Selling (TM) means adding a ton of value to anyone who’s considering buying from us.
I mention that there are other affiliates, because I may not be the right one for you. I believe in this course SO MUCH that I would like you to take it irrespective of who you buy from. But, if you’d like to buy it through me – as well as it costing the same as it would anywhere else – here’s what you get from me, FREE:
My Storytelling In Sales Experience – Not available ANYWHERE else.
The point where everything really fell into place – and clients started clamouring to work with me – was when I began telling stories in my sales pitches. I was combining Kendrick’s teachings on sales, with my own talents in telling true stories.
As Kendrick taught me, people will always buy based on emotions (and then justify their purchase with their brains).
The quickest way to make an emotional impact on your dream clients?
Tell your stories.
In this four-part experience, I’ll:
-
help you dig up WHICH stories to tell
-
show you how to tell them in a powerful way that connects INSTANTLY with your audience
-
review and tweak the first draft of your story
-
review your final sales page (or newsletter email, or video) once you’ve added the story into it.
Plus, as bonuses, you get recordings of every call we have (to collect the stories we find), AND all of my online networking materials, including email templates – so that you have even more tools to spread the word of your business and to sell using stories. 
Want this? Then you MUST buy Sales School through the link on this page, before the cart closes on July 29th: yym.ca/salesschool2016
Any questions you think I can help with? Hit reply – or book yourself in for a (no obligation) free 15 minute chat, here:
Kendrick Shope totally transformed my business and changed my life. Let her change yours, too, with Sales School.
And if you buy from here, I’ll show you how to superpower your new-found sales skills with stories – so your copy will be enormously effective and REALLY fun.
You rule,
xx (Yes Yes) Marsha
P.S. Seriously – Sales School will change your life: http://yym.ca/salesschool2016
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