You’re wearing many hats in your business right now, and there is one that you might not be aware of. You put this hat on every day, too. Including being in charge of everything from your website to payroll, you’re also the lead salesperson for your business. The role of sales might be the most crucial role of all! In this blog post, I share 5 sales techniques that will help you land the sale more often. Consider it your secret sauce to booking more dreamy, lovable clients.
First, let’s get something out of the way: you need a sales strategy. If you don’t have one, let’s get you one. This article will help you take charge and craft a successful sales strategy.
Did you know that people who write down their goals are 42% more likely to achieve them? This principle applies to all business strategies, including sales, marketing, and growth strategies. When you develop these areas on paper, you’re much more likely to see them through to success. You want to define and refine your sales strategy throughout the year, perhaps most notably during engagement season.
Stop Focusing So Much On Your Price
You might think your customers care the most about your price, but that’s not the case. Consider this quote from Seth Godin:
“The reason it seems that price is all your customers care about is that you haven’t given them anything else to care about.”
To land the sale, you have to take some time to understand what your customers care about – and then create customized services that match their needs. Not their needs on price, but what they care about.
What questions can you start asking leads to understand what it is they really care about?
Automate Your Process
When you can automate your business areas, you make those areas work better for you rather than you having to work for them.
There are steps in our sales process that are automated with tech. Honeybook has automated systems that take care of us, like questionnaires, contracts, and payments.
The benefits of automation aren’t just saving time. When you automate your sales process, it allows ANYONE in your company to sell just like you.
What areas of your sales process can you automate? Start by creating a Google doc where you outline your current sales process. Then, ask yourself the question: how can we automate specific tasks or touchpoints?
Accelerate the Know/Like/Trust Factor
Just like respect, you earn trust. How do you gain the confidence of a potential lead?
Trust is something that you want to establish early on in a relationship.
To develop trust, you have to do a few things.
First, you need to listen to what your potential lead is telling you. Being a good listener is a muscle you have to exercise. Ask your potential clients questions in a questionnaire before you pitch, which will help you get to know them better. Listen to their answers.
Remember, you need to know what they care about.
Next, deliver a value proposition that considers all their concerns and requirements and illustrates how they’ll feel when working for you.
Yes, illustrate how your services or product will make them feel. As humans, we purchase our feelings. When we’re confused, we seek out remedies that educate us. If we’re scared, we buy items that will take away fear. When we’re overwhelmed, we enlist help.
Selling feelings is a viable sales strategy. It’s what guides most people’s purchasing decisions. Just make sure you can deliver on the emotions that you sell.
Personalizing Your Pitch
Every person who inquires about your goods or services is unique. Are you personalizing your sales pitch to each? I’m going to show you an easy way to do that: define your client avatars.
What’s a client avatar? It’s simply a client profile. You can have more than one, and your client avatar can be B to C (business to client) OR a B to B (business to business). Consider this: who are your ideal clients? What do they value, what motivates them, and what problems do they face?
We’re all unique people. We have unique personalities, wants, and needs. For instance, I’m an Enneagram type 3, which means I’m always striving for achievement. I like people to get to the point quickly, and I’m willing to move on an idea before I’ve thoroughly thought it through. If you knew that about me, how would you personalize your sales pitch?
Authenticity Is Key
Authenticity is a word that gets thrown around a lot these days, and that’s because millennials are all about it. To me, authenticity means being honest, up-front, and always keeping my customers’ best interests in mind. Do you do that during the sales process?
Being authentic is another way to gain the trust of your potential sales. Do you educate your potential customers when they connect with you? Maybe their budget is out of whack (it happens, people!). Or perhaps their expectations are unrealistic. Be a source of knowledge for them– be honest and straight up.
Let authenticity guide you in the sales process so much so that your ideal customers see it at work. They’ll know you’re honest with them, even when you’re telling them something they don’t want to hear. They’ll trust you because of it.
Being authentic also means you never stray from your business’s core values, mission, or vision.
These sales techniques are just a few high-level ideas you need to be aware of. I’ve got more sales advice in my arsenal that I’ll share with you soon!
If you’re looking to book high-end wedding clients (and call in magazine worthy weddings), I want to invite you to check out my Client Cocktail. It’s a client attraction formula for wedding planners, photographers, and industry creatives who are ready to upgrade their clients (and stop serving the wrong people).
Explore More Wedding Industry Resources
- How Soulful Sales & Magnetic Marketing Will Help You Consistently Convert Your Ideal Clients with Naomi Powell
- Book More Clients This Engagement Season with This Sales Process
- 5 Tips On Crafting a Business Plan To Book Out Your Biz With Your Ideal Clients And Get Paid
- Is Honeybook Right For Your Business? 5 Things You Need to Know Before You Make the Switch
- How To Sell Your Wedding Planning Services: The 7 Stages Of The Sales Cycle
- Are Your Wedding Industry Sales Down? Here’s How To Figure Out What’s Wrong
- Getting Ghosted? Here’s Why Leads Might Be Ghosting You In Your Wedding Business
- Top 2 Mistakes Wedding Pros Make That Sabotage The Sale
- Wedding Industry Self Care: How To Practice Self Care During Wedding Season with Candice Denise
For more business tips and a look into my island life, follow me on the ‘gram
Do it or delete it.
I said this recently to a coaching client, and now it’s sort of become our mantra inside WPI, because almost every business owner I know has a to-do list with 47 things on it (the same 47 things that were on last week’s list, and the week before that).
They don’t get done. They just travel from week to week collecting guilt, and that guilt somehow makes it even harder to get anything done at all.
After years of coaching women through this, you start to realize that most of those tasks don’t actually have dire consequences if they never happen. They just feel important because they’ve been living on your list rent-free for six months.
I want you to look at your to-do list right now and choose.
You do it… meaning you do it right now or at the very least put it on the calendar with a real deadline.
You delegate it… but only if it’s actually worth someone else’s time, not because you’ve been avoiding it and want to make it someone else’s problem.
Or you delete it… and I mean actually delete it, not shuffle it to a “someday” list where it will haunt you until 2027.
The guilt you feel about your undone tasks won’t go away if you magically “get more productive.” Instead I want you to see it for what it is: a list-curation problem.
What’s one thing you’re deleting today?
PS: I can confidently say these @aritzia sweatpants are 10/10
Syd from @ininkweddings spent $$$$ on a rebrand... and a year later, her gut told her to do it again.
She listened, and that’s how Messy Luxury™ was born.
The Behind the Brand series is BACK on the podcast, and this episode is one of my favorites yet. I’m excited to introduce you to Sydney Meyer (AKA ya girl, SYD) – a talented, vibrant, and dynamic wedding designer / planner based in Austin but serving clients worldwide.
I’ve been coaching Syd inside WPI since 2022, so I’ve had a front row seat to her evolution.
I’ve gotten to watch her build an iconic brand from the inside out, and it’s been one of the great joys of my coaching career. I’m so excited for you to hear her journey and some of the interesting twists and turns she’s encountered because boy, are they RELATABLE.
In this episode, we get into:
- What inspired her to start In Ink
- Why her first rebrand still didn’t feel right and how she knew
- The rock-bottom moment that forced her to build a business for HER, not everyone else
- How she trademarked Messy Luxury and turned it into the most recognizable design philosophy in Austin
If your business doesn’t feel like you anymore or if you’ve been searching for your unique creative POV, you’re going to LOVE this week’s episode!
Drop MESSY LUXURY in the comments and I’ll send you a link to listen!
A special shout out to all the photographers whose images reflect Syd and her great work: @alicialeighphoto @anastasiastratephotography @fallonstovallphoto @lightasgold @natalienicolephoto @haleyfolkman.photo @c10ike
NIGHT ONE // WPI Spring Retreat
I’m so excited to share a recap of our WPI mastermind retreat, starting with night one!
We kicked things off on the rooftop of @hotelindigobridgetown for some welcome drinks, bites, and a beautiful sunset. There were plenty of hugs, many “omg I can’t believe we are hanging out in person,” and good energy to start our week together!
Here’s a quick look at we spent our time, courtesy of @c10ike, our amazing retreat photographer!! 💜💜💜
just in case you’re wondering the rumors you heard about me are 100% true 💅
photo @c10ike
Want more? Check out this video on my YouTube channel ↓
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