“People often remark that I’m pretty lucky. Lucky is only important in so far as getting the chance to sell yourself at the right moment. After that, you’ve got to have talent and know how to use it.”

(Frank Sinatra)

I’ve had a few requests that have said that they want to read more about the topics of selling and generally blocks around money. While there will be posts in the future that will cover more, today’s will talk more about selling yourself.

I come across a lot of coaches, and change workers in general, who when asked will admit that they really don’t like the idea of sales. A common phrase that they use is that they just are not comfortable “selling myself”.

Before I move onto the main point of this post, I invite you to take a moment to notice what you expect my main piece of advice about selling yourself as a coach will be.

Do you expect me to write about the importance of the first impression and to pay attention to the clothes that you wear or the way you talk on the phone? – After all “smile while you dial” is the advice that many tele-sales agents have been given over the years to have a warm sounding tone when talking to potential clients.

Do you expect me to talk about the importance of grabbing your potential clients attention and building their interest in you until their desire is so strong they take action?

Perhaps you expect me to talk about the importance about your confidence – if you don’t believe in you, how do you expect a potential client to believe in you?

Maybe you expect me to say something else entirely, one of the many other sales tips and techniques that you can follow.

What I am actually going to say is – don’t sell yourself! “Sell” what your work does for your clients.

Let me explain more, as was tactfully pointed out to me when I first started my coaching practice, selling yourself is a totally different profession to coaching 😉

What you are actually selling is a service/product that you deliver, or more precisely what that means for your potential clients.

Yes, there will be a way that you work that will be unique to you (even if you don’t yet know what that is 😉 ) but your clients are not looking to buy you, they want what your work can do for them.

Many find that this slight change in approach can make a huge difference to how they feel about “selling”. It does not mean that they are any less “professional” in their approach and behaviour. What it does do is to take away any feeling of personal rejection if a potential client does not say yes. After all, it’s what they see as the potential benefits of your work they are saying no to – not your own worth as an individual!

Anybody who has worked in sales for any length of time will tell you that there will always be some who say no to what you are offering. There are lots of different tips and techniques that you can use to perfect your skills in “selling” but ultimately you actually have to use them. – Something that you will find a lot easier to do if you are comfortable with the idea and not afraid of someone not saying yes.

So yes, by all means consider the first impression, grabbing attention and building desire, feel more comfortable in your skin and more confident with your skills but I invite you to stop making it personal!

Do you agree? What are your thoughts? Maybe you want to share some of your favourite advice about selling coaching. Answer in the leave a reply section below and click “submit comment.”