I’m Being Consistent: Now What?

Last week I talked about why I never hired that guy to patch my driveway: the main issue I was hammering was consistency in marketing and showing up. Show up consistently, I explained, and you’re going to have an easier time getting clients.

I did have one caveat, though:

“You may need to tweak your sales process. You may need to make your offer more compelling.”

Being consistent is critical, but it’s not enough. Your sales process has to work.

Sales Process? Isn’t That Just Chewing People Up?

If you’ve got a heart, you might feel sick to your stomach every time you try to systematize or create consistency in the parts of your business that need delicacy and caring.

Sales is one of those places that needs a LOT of heart to be successful without leaving a bad taste in someone’s mouth. So turning it into a process might cause you to worry about it being scummy.

There are two things I want to say to that. First, never forget that a business exists to help people with some problem they are facing. It has a goal and an endpoint. Second, if you’re just hanging out with friends, you don’t want to turn that into a process (though if you want to get all beepidy-boppidy on me, you can say that looking at you calendar, looking up your friends’ number, then calling and inviting them over is a process.)

Your potential clients want to enjoy connecting with you, but they aren’t just hanging out. They’re struggling with something. If you don’t have a clear sales process, a way for your potential client and you to evaluate whether you fit together, and whether the offer is what they want and need, then you’ll end up wasting their time and yours.

Over the years people have pitched me on ideas or services and kept coming back, and back, and back to check in with me. If the process is dragged out, or nonexistent, then it all feels floppy. The potential client ends up having a decision to make taking up space in their brain and life, but no way to make the decision. It becomes a painful, incomplete interaction that drags on and on.

Yet, when there’s a clear way to evaluate it, and it all happens in a few days or a week or two, it’s easy to say yes or no without hard feelings and move on.

So yes, you do want a sales process, because of the mercy and compassion it brings to you and to your clients.

What does a sales process look like? Here are the elements:

The Elements of a Heart-Centered Sales Process

First you need a clear offer. The offer is clear on four things: who it’s for, what problem it solves, what the client gets when they buy, and how much it costs.

Any lack of clarity here will stall your process indefinitely.

Example: “Struggling with digestion issues? For people whose stomachs are delicate and always upset. It includes a 30 day cleanse with an initial assessment, then four weekly appointments, specific menus and herbs, and a follow-up assessment afterwards. It costs $750.”

That’s not intended as marketing copy, it’s just the bullet point clarity of what the offer is. There would be even more detail listed there—how many menus and recipes, what are the herbs and how much of them. How long are the appointments and what are they for.

Second, you need a way to assess the potential client’s fit. An assessment is a series of questions that reveal to both you and the client whether the offer is a match for them. You might ask these questions outright, and some of them you might just hold in your heart and observe how the answers are revealed through people’s actions.

• What is the situation now?
• What have they already tried?
• What kind of progress have they made without your help?
• How important or critical is this to them?
• Do you and the client share relevant values?
• Do you all click?
• Do they have the time to follow through?
• Do they have the resources to commit?

You may well have other questions. What do you need to know, and what do they need to know, to evaluate whether it’s a fit or not?

Third, you need to ask the question. You know what question I mean. The question, “Uh, so do you want to buy it?”

It can be awkward asking the question, but if the conversation or process flows well and naturally, and if you’ve kept a good heart connection throughout, then asking them if they want to buy or enroll or sign-up won’t be as painful as you think.

The truth is that they are dying a little waiting for you to ask. They know the question is coming, but they don’t know if you have more to explain, or what the next step is. If you show leadership here, simply by asking the question, they can lean into you more.

Your heart knows when to ask. Trust it.

Fourth, you need to know when to let go. It’s hard for people to say no. If someone says yes or maybe but doesn’t show up time and time again with a commitment, stop chasing them. Let them have their space.

Know that they respect you too much to want to upset you with a “no.” Yes, it’s a little dysfunctional. No, you can’t do anything about it.

Let them go. They’ll come back when they’re ready, if it’s right for them.

How Clear Is Your Sales Process?

Time to take a look. Of course each step has nuances and details, but if you get the minimum in place, then you are going to find the consistency of your marketing start to pay off.

Aside About Our Next Course: Almost a Sales Pitch

I can’t help but mention that the first week in August we’ll be opening registration for our next course, Momentum: Three Journeys to an Ongoing Flow of Clients and Money. One of the modules is all about the sales process. I just thought I’d mention it because if you need more in-depth help with this topic, it’s coming up.

More on the course later.

Where’s Your Heart?

Sometimes it’s all too easy to think that being in your heart in business is just about being squishy and full of love and goodwill for everyone and everything. It’s all too easy to forget that the heart is the strongest, most enduring muscle in the body. It works constantly from before birth until you die, and it gets a LOT done every day.

Having your heart in business means that you care for people in grounded, practical ways. You don’t disappear on the people who need you most; instead you show up consistently for them. You don’t waste their time with long, drawn-out, vague sales processes. Instead, you put clear offers in place, have clear assessments, and move them along. You don’t leave them dying inside wondering what the next step is. You ask them if they want what you’re offering.

Tell me, did I leave anything out? Any nuances or details that you would like to add? Or maybe share where you struggle the most with this.

p.s. Need Someone To Dig In And Help You?

We have three fantastic practitioners ready to roll up their sleeves to support your heart and your business with love and the nitty-gritty of getting clients. Check them out and see if you click with Jason or Yollana.

Organic Business Development Program.

A few people have asked about working with me directly. I work with very few individual clients, since most of my time is spent supporting our team and our class participants. I do have limited slots for one-off business assessments. If you’re curious you can read this page:

Work with Mark.