In order to get all of that freedom that you are craving as an entrepreneur, the reason that you started your business in the first place, you are going to have to master the art and science of sales. A business without clients is not a business at all and you’ll wind up having to just go back and get a real job if you don’t get good at this, ASAP.

The great news is, is that sales does not have to be overwhelming. It doesn’t have to be pushy or sleazy, and in this video, like I said, I’ve got seven essential sales tips for you, the entrepreneur who wants to be great at sales, in a way that feels good, working with new clients.

Strategy #1 Date first

The first tip I have for you is to date first. Being great at business comes down to relationship building, and I like using this dating metaphor as an analogy because it’s fun and easy to understand. You know that if you were out trying to find a date, you wouldn’t just walk up to somebody you didn’t know and ask them to move in with you or marry you. That would be really weird and creepy.

But yet, a lot of you are doing this with your online marketing, or even offline marketing. You’re going to networking groups or you’re posting on Instagram all the time, promoting your stuff and trying to get people to essentially do the equivalent of move in with you in the dating metaphor.

What you want to do first is build that relationship. I like to refer to this as the attract, amaze, ask formula. So attraction is the phase where you go and you meet someone. It’s that first encounter. The amaze phase is then when you’re nurturing that relationship and this is the part that most entrepreneurs are being a little bit lackadaisical about, and this is the one we want to focus on in the dating analogy. And then finally, once you’ve built a relationship that has some trust in it … the know, like, and trust factor … then you get to ask something out of that person, and that, in this case, is going to be to buy one of your products or hire you for services.

Bonus tip: Be generous

Bonus tip here is that the easiest way to amaze new subscribers or strangers is to be generous. Give away awesome free content like what I’m doing right now for you, and they will become fans really quickly.

Strategy #2 Believe in it

Essential tip number two is that you have to believe in what you sell. I used to work as a barista in a coffee shop as my bridge job when I was building my business and I worked with a lot of high school students, even though I was in my 20s. There was one girl who worked there, who refused to eat or drink anything at the coffee shop because, to her, that was off limits for us and it was only for the customers.

I though that was the weirdest opinion ever. I ate and drank just about everything in that coffee shop, and this way I could genuinely and enthusiastically talk about the things that I loved and tell people if I thought something maybe wasn’t going to be something that they liked, because I had a real belief in what I was doing and was able to sell more ultimately, coffee and treats and pastries, to the clients at the coffee shop.

In the entrepreneur world, I notice that a lot of entrepreneurs are feeling self doubt around what you’re putting out there, and if you aren’t feeling 100% about your services when you go to sell them, you need to get into that mindset before you get on any kind of sales call or have any kind of conversation with a potential client. Because if you don’t believe in what you’re doing, that potential client is going to be able to read that all over your face.

Strategy #3  No expectations

Tip number three is to let go of expectations. I used to get on sales calls with the mentality that, “I’m going to close this sale no matter what.” In fact, I had considered the client already sold before I got on the call. The second that someone filled out an application to work with me, or inquired about working me, I was like, “Oh, I got a new client,” in my head. Obviously, this wasn’t the right approach to be taking, because it turned out bringing a lot more disappointed than it should have.

So when I realized that this was problematic for me, I decided that I was going to get into a mental state before every single sales call with a potential client of, “I don’t care what happens. I’m going to tell this person what I really think, and I’m going to believe in what I’m doing, and I’m going to be honest, but if this isn’t a good fit for this person or I don’t think it’s going to be a good fit for me, then it’s okay if this person says no.”

This way I was able to relieve all of the pressure of making something happen or making the sale on the sales call, which is not a healthy mentality to have when you’re trying to build a trust based relationship with your potential clients.

Strategy #4 Listen up!

Tip number four is to listen more than you speak. When you talk to a potential client, it is your job to listen to the language that they’re using, to listen to their concerns and questions, not talk on and on and on about how amazing your offer is. This is something where a lot of us shoot ourselves in the foot, because we think on a sales call we’re supposed to be selling, and what we really need to be doing is listening.

The best way to get your potential client to talk is to ask them questions about themselves. You can ask them questions like, “What are you hoping to get out of working with me? What are your biggest questions or concerns about this process? What made now the right time for you to get started working on this project?” Once you ask the question, zip your lips and just listen to what the person is saying, take notes, because tip number is five is that you want to use their language.

(Bonus!) Strategy #5 Use their language

Now that you’ve stopped talking, it’s time to put your listening muscle to the test and become an active listener. For example, if you are someone who specializes in helping people with their habits and routines, and your client says that they want your help developing a awesome morning routing, and you ask them, “What is your idea of a perfect morning routine? What makes you want to work with me? What are you hoping to get out of this service?” and they say, “I want to have a solid morning routine, that I don’t even have to think about because it becomes second nature,” then your alarm bells should be going off that you want to be using that language, solid morning routine, becoming second nature, and any other language that relates to those ideas when you reply back to that person.

This isn’t just a sales strategy, this is honestly a great communication tool if you want to become a better listener. Practice it today, even in a non-sales context. The next time you talk to somebody, listen to them actively, listen to the words they’re using, and then make sure to repeat some of those key words back to them, and also change it up a little bit to say the same idea with different language. That is going to make that person feel heard and not like you’re constantly waiting for them to stop talking so that you can get your point across.

Now, I’d like to take things a step further because I know that you’re looking to get more clients and I have got a checklist of 64 things you can do this week. You don’t even have to do all them, you just pick the ones that feel the easiest for you, the lowest hanging fruit, to get a new client this week.

Make sure to leave a comment below and let me know, which was your favorite of the sales tips? Which one do you think is going to make the biggest difference for you? Is it listening more than you speak? Is it letting go of expectations before you get on any kind of sales call, or go to a meeting, or talk to any potential clients? I would love to know.