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Wanting to be a better salesperson does not make you:
We all know that No sales = No business. Fostering strong relationships will absolutely grow your business, but NOT if you altogether avoid sales. My last post was about how relationship building is more important than a quick sale, but NOT an effort to label sales as bad. If you can’t or won’t sell yourself and your business, you’ll end up with a lot of friends, you’ll give away a ton of free value, but you won’t be able to pay your bills. I like to think of sales like food. We need it to survive. It’s not inherently bad or good. Almost all of us have a complicated relationship with it. Some food we eat a lot, some we only eat once in a while or on special occasions. It can taste delicious and makes you feel instant gratification. You look forward to it, savour it, and when it’s over, you can’t stop yourself from wondering when you’ll have it again. Or, it can taste terrible, leave you with a stomach ache and feeling sick. Sales aren’t bad. Selling isn’t bad. It’s an essential component of building a healthy, balanced business. ;-) So why do sales feel so icky sometimes? Because we don’t know if the person selling us cares beyond the sale. Relationship focused business is NOT about avoiding sales. It’s about fostering strong relationships, seeing the human behind the sale, and creating a safe, trusting and open space where sales happen naturally without the icky feeling. When you care about the person behind the sale, you care beyond a yes or a no. You want to help, offer your services, and see them succeed. But you also see and nurture the strength and resilience in the other person, knowing that your relationship is essential regardless of the sale.
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We all want to be a part of a community that is a positive space and filled space with people who embody the qualities we believe in and bring out the best in us. As a business, having a strong community is an incredible tool for building and maintaining culture, improving brand reputation, increasing brand awareness and visibility, and attracting and retaining clients and employees who embody your company values. Many challenges can arise when both building and maintaining a community for your business. Toxic members, miscommunication, ignored boundaries, awkward silence. One challenge that is SO common and yet rarely discussed is how you can stand out from the mass of other ‘communities’? How can you define and differentiate your community from every other community out there? The most common strategy business owners and marketers use is to ask their members to describe it in their own words. “I love this community because it’s so positive and welcoming; everyone is awesome!” Not super helpful - everyone says that about their community. So, how do you explain your culture with enough context that outsiders can see how it’s different? The same way you go about describing how your business is different from the rest of the competition.  ASK MORE QUESTIONS.
This isn’t a 5-minute project. Learning the right words to describe your community and the culture it upholds takes TIME. BUT, if your community is a crucial aspect of your business, you can and should use it to market your business. Community is something we all crave and is a MASSIVELY powerful marketing tool when used correctly. If you’d like an audit of your community ‘pitch,’ post it in the comments, and I’ll help you nail it! We, and our businesses, grow and flourish in connection ⚡️. The word connected has taken on a different meaning in recent history. Phones, social media, and a constant need to be “connected” is NOT what I am talking about🙅♀️. Often, we are so attached to our phones and social media when we feel the most disconnected.  Genuine connection, brought forward through mutually meaningful relationships, has four specific components.
1. Mutual engagement and empathy: mutually involved, committed, and sensitive to the relationship with a willingness to impact AND be impacted by another. 2. Authenticity: the freedom and capacity to be ourselves with an awareness of how we impact others. 3. Empowerment: The sense of personal strength that emerges from the relationship. 4. The ability to express, receive, and process diversity, difference, and CONFLICT in the relationship in a way that fosters mutual empowerment and empathy. If I’ve learned anything through this time of global crisis, it is that mutually meaningful relationships directly impact: the healthy development of our sense of self, our resilience, AND the success of our businesses. We are wired to connect 🧠. “We do not use nurturing or loving people to fill us up or prepare us to separate and then stand strong alone. There is not a cutoff on our need for connection - ever!” (Jordan, 2017). 🚫 It’s time to stop the cold DM’s, generic email campaigns, and manic feast-or-famine social media marketing strategies. ✅ It’s time to step up and take ownership of our communications authentically and take back REAL connection. I’m here to help. 🙋♀️ If you are ready to build real connections and foster mutually meaningful relationships that empower, influence and lead, I’ve got news for YOU! Strategic Communications & Marketing Consulting. Connective Communications Coaching. Done-for-you Marketing Services. 2021 HERE WE COME! Get to the heart of what matters most to your clients and team so you can empower, influence and LEAD 💕. Interested in learning more? Click the link in my bio or send me a DM. Yes. Some questions are loaded. |
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