Sales Means Offering Solutions To Your Audience

Believer and Mompreneur, I’m here with good news in today’s blog post.  If you’ve been feeling a nudge to create and sell, then this blog post is for you. Maybe you’ve been thinking you should start knitting and sell your creations on Etsy. Or maybe you’ve been thinking about starting a blog and earning money from your blog. Or maybe you’ve even thought about doing a YouTube channel or a podcast. There are so many options to launch and grow a business from your phone or laptop. The time-tested methods of selling via face-to-face interactions through vendor events and brick and mortar stores are available, as well. You may be asking yourself if it’s the right time to start and where to put your focus. 

Fallon and I had a booth!

My 10 year old daughter, Fallon, and I recently sold sourdough starter at a local church during a vendor event. We were team members! So fun!  It was a holiday craft show with Santa, worship music playing, and all kinds of goodies to eat and drink. Women and families were selling their goods, whether it be network marketing items or handmade items like tumblers, baby clothes and books. It was really fun and my daughter and I walked away from that event full of curiosity and new-found wisdom. Watching people engage with our products (or walk on by, hahaha) taught us a lot about human behavior and field sales. 

Whether you’re stepping into an industry where you’re an affiliate marketer or you’re going sell handmade items, sales methodologies tend to have the same principles across the board. One of the most challenging parts of the sales process is introducing your product or service. For us, that happened when many of potential customers strolled on by our table being careful not to make eye contact. I’m not going to lie. That’s a tough moment to navigate. You can’t help but wonder “what are they thinking?” “do they even know what we’re selling?” “what assumptions are they making right now?” It stings when they keep walking or when your attempts to reach out are met with indifference or negativity. I want to encourage you, though, that you will learn so much through these experiences, you will improve upon your customer connection and you will find the right people. So much of success in sales has to do with persistence. 

I also want to encourage the person who is on the fence about earning more money for your family and thinking to yourself I just don’t see how I could do that. Reconsider your thoughts on that. I was where you are and I can say without a doubt that one of the best decisions I made was eight years ago when I joined a network marketing company and grew a team of sales leaders. To this day, one of my family’s streams of income is through that network marketing company. But that experience gave me opportunities to increase my confidence and refine my sales approach. It was full of nervous moments and I was a chicken a lot of times. I was just terrified, but I’m so glad I stuck with it. One of my greatest takeaways during this last eight years is that if I can earn $1, I can earn $1,000. And I believe you can, too. 

tell yourself the truth

Here’s one thing that will serve you if you are interested in selling items on the internet or in person like Fallon and I did at the vendor event: people have money. Own the fact that people have money and they’re looking to spend money, however they may not be looking to spend money on your product or service. And that’s ok. Your product or service isn’t for everybody. Just don’t go into it making the person’s mind up *for* them. 

Perhaps your potential customers are afraid or confused when introduced to your product. In our case, some were afraid to buy sourdough starter because they haven’t made sourdough before. This is totally understandable. So part of our job as sales professionals was to ease their fears and help them have the courage to try something new. Other objections included not having enough time. As we explained the process and the simple instructions included with purchase, some of our “lookers” became buyers and went home with a little spring in their step from the belief they could learn something new. What a fun event and a great opportunity to learn! 

An incredible lesson that Fallon learned was about human behavior when someone wasn’t interested in buying our sourdough starter. We talked through how some just don’t want to hurt our feelings, so they avoid making eye contact. Some people don’t want to make small talk. They just want to walk around and window shop. That’s fair. So what starts out as feeling personal actually isn’t upon further investigation. Learning that it isn’t about me is a valuable lesson. 

At the vendor event, we ended up selling about 16 out of the 150 jars of sourdough starter and that was an interesting dose of reality. Fallon learned so much and I did, too. 

sales philosophies

Many women believe “I just don’t know how to sell”. I tend to not believe women when they say that  because a lot of times I will have just watched you sell your child on eating their peanut butter and jelly sandwich. You sold them on the last three bites. Women are relationally amazing and they’re very good at networking and really good at sales.

Ultimately, I prioritize people over anything I sell as all good leaders do. I value relationships and I have patience during the sales cycle. And, of course, I remember that a “no” may really just be “not now”. At the end of the day, I go to sleep knowing that I was helpful and my intention was to serve and provide a solution that some may be looking for. It’s about so much more than just sales transactions. 

You don’t get a lot of confidence by just thinking about something and mulling it over. The confidence really comes from ripping off the bandaid and taking a first step and doing something. It might even take less time to gain confidence than you are imagining right now. 

One of the tips that I would leave for you here is how can you serve people and go the extra mile so you know that they’re taken care of after they buy what it is you have to sell. If there are many different dimensions to the products or the services that you sell, then you want to give your customer a great experience that gives them more information during follow up. And they need clear steps so they know what to expect next. You want it to be easy and straightforward as to how your product works.

One of the questions Fallon had about selling our sourdough starter was about the up front cost. We talked through investing and overhead costs. There were so many great lessons in just that one vendor event. Learning by doing is my favorite. One of the things I told Fallon was that investing is important, but also not giving up is important. Sometimes it takes awhile to see the fruit from your investment during those early stages. Patience is key. 

maybe it’s time to move your feet

I just want to encourage you guys that if you’re in a season where you’re worried about selling your stuff, or you’re worried about investing, or you’re worried about what people think about you or your product or your service, you are not alone in those feelings. However, you might need to stop sitting around and waiting for the perfect moment to start and just get out there and start moving your feet. Do something. God will bring you the new clients if he nudged your heart to open your doors. This is a beautiful faith walk where you get to keep going even when you have so much uncertainty. You will decide not to lay down your peace, but instead you will pick up your confidence. You will learn not to worry about the outcomes. Let your business goals be to get curious about how you can make it a better experience for your customers and maintaining a service mindset.