How to make selling easy: understand the difference between marketing and sales

Many of us shy away from selling in our businesses. But sales is a vital part of running a viable business so it’s just as important as marketing and all the other thing you’re doing to attract clients. Here’s how to make selling easy and comfortable instead of cringey.

The first thing is to understand that marketing and selling are two different things.

I was reminded of this the other day as had a 1-2-1 session with a client. Afterwards I got a message from her saying, ‘If you need a testimonial about 1-2-1s I can write one about how your advice/coaching just netted me 600€ (and almost certainly another 60, it’s just not paid for yet but I’m sure she will book). The lightbulb is that I’ve been doing marketing but not sales.’ 

It made me think that this is probably something that a lot of people need to understand better.

The aim of marketing is to reduce the need for selling. 

Philip Kotler, the father of marketing.

Effective marketers understand and communicate how a product or service will meet the needs of a customer. Do this well, then customers won’t need to be persuaded. And that’s how to make selling easy. 

But that doesn’t mean that you don’t have to do any selling at all. It simply means that you don’t need to persuade or convince, because your marketing has done the heavy lifting of helping people understand why they need and want the thing you’re selling. 

Why people don’t buy (even if they’re interested)

But, often, even if people are convinced they need what you’re offering, they still might not actually take the decision to buy. There are various reasons this might happen. 

• They might be really busy so they keep meaning to do it, but don’t get round to it.
• They might need a bit of reassurance that it really is going to work for them specifically.
• They might feel it’s a bit self-indulgent to spend the money.
• They need a bit more evidence that they will get a return on their investment. 

What’s the solution?

This is where the selling comes in. Not persuading them, but giving them an opportunity to work through these slight doubts, and check out for themselves if it’s the right decision for them. 

Now, while you can do some of this through a sales page or an Instagram post, it’s not personalised in any way, so you really need to talk to them. 

And that often means reaching out to someone or following up with them, even if it feels a bit scary when you first start doing it. 

Are you talking about cold sales calls?

No, I’m not talking about cold outreach, where you get in touch with people who have never indicated in any way they are interested, and try and push them into buying. That tactic is unlikely to work in the majority of cases.

I’m talking about when someone has clearly indicated that they are potentially interested. Maybe they’ve interacted with a post on social media or clicked a link to one of your offers in an email. 

This kind of direct action is even more important when they actually have reached out to you, but then gone a bit quiet. 

Just be brave enough to start a conversation with them, and see what happens. Let them guide the conversation so you’re not coming across as a pushy salesperson. 

Taking the risk of following up might feel scary but you’re not pushing a sale. You’re just helping them take the next step if they want to. 

Yes, sometimes they may have gone quiet because they’ve lost interest, and that’s fine. But very often they are just busy, or a bit fearful. You getting back in touch is reassuring and gives them the opportunity to ask some questions.

Don’t believe the stories you’re making up about why they’re not buying

We can make up all kinds of stories in our heads about why they’ve gone quiet. You might start telling yourself that they think your service is rubbish. Or that they think you’re super pushy. But these are just stories. The likelihood is that they’re just busy, or maybe slightly avoiding the challenge of doing the work. 

And we aren’t the only ones who make up stories. 

The potential client may well also be making up stories about how you probably don’t want to work with them anyway. 

The only way to get past those stories is just to talk to them and see what’s what. The more often you do this, the easier it will be to do it in a detached way – where you’re not invested in the outcome. If they’re not interested, that’s absolutely fine… but often they actually ARE.