For the first 18 months or so in my coaching business, I never built “sales” calls into my on-boarding process.
Whether you call them sales calls, or discovery sessions, or consult calls, they can usually be a big part of a service-based creatives process when it comes to attracting, booking, and on-boarding clients.
For a long time, I was very nervous and uncomfortable to host them. I’ve been lucky enough to be able to attract and book clients and be consistently booked out without them - my content has played the part of letting potential clients get to know me and feel comfortable enough to hire me as their coach - but during 2016 I’ve started to offer them a few times throughout the year and it’s thankfully been a way less scary experience than I expected.
It may sound strange that I was so nervous about hosting sales call, when jumping on calls with my clients is what I spend every single week doing anyway. But I had this big mindset block around the “selling” side of my business - I felt really uncomfortable jumping on a call with someone with the intent of selling to them, and also that fear that I would start to feel like I needed to hustle for my self worth as a coach.
I love the work I do as a coach - and I truly believe in the work I do too - but selling has always been the area I’ve battled with. I’m sure many of you can relate to this - I just never, ever, want to feel like a sleazy used car salesman.
So even though I never felt like I needed to introduce sales or consult calls into my on-boarding process, I couldn’t deny their value either, especially after seeing how beneficial they are for my clients who are coaches who host them on a regular basis.
Sales calls can give you space to really connect with a potential client, to truly understand their needs, to answer their questions about your services, and give them space to see if you’re a good fit together too. Especially if you have more premium pricing too, it’s a great way to give potential clients an opportunity to make an informed and comfortable purchasing decision, which for me as a coach is one of the most important things. I only want to work with clients who feel comfortable and excited about their investment in our work together.
When you first start to picture sales calls, you may visualise a scenario where you have to pitch, sell, and aggressively market your services in a way that feels icky, salesy, and uncomfortable. That’s what I feared too, and why for a long time I never did them. But I’ve found that there can be another way, and I want to share my own approach with you today in the hopes of encouraging you to develop you own non-icky and soul centered approach if sales calls can serve your business model right now:
Read More
