Do I have to believe in my products and services to sell them?
A few weeks ago we polled you with a single question:
As a non-salesperson, you still have to sell your services. What, if anything, makes you anxious about selling?”
If you haven’t answered the poll, you can do it now by using the pop-up appearing below. We’ll be providing our take on how non-salespeople can address some of these common anxieties about selling so you can start moving down the path towards becoming what we call a “sales hero” – this is a non-salesperson who has the knowledge, confidence and skills they need to get the sales job done well.
Today’s sales anxiety is here:
| “I would not be good at selling a product, especially if I do not use or fully believe in it.” |
Here’s how we approach this common sales anxiety
Technically, using or believing in your product is not essential to selling it, many people do this all the time. However there is great power in believing in your product as well as using it (or if you are not in the target market, then at the very least you can witness other people using your products and understand how it benefits them). This belief in your product can help you communicate empathetically with your prospects.
The real story behind this anxiety however is not knowing enough about what you’re selling, being in the wrong role or company where you feel you have to lie, and sometimes not being clear about your own relationship with money and the things that your target market values (but you might not).
Get to know what you’re selling
One can address product knowledge fairly easily. In addition to basics like company culture and work tools, one’s first few weeks in a new job should be focused on product knowledge. Here are some ideas that might help:
- reading basic material written from a lay perspective
- watching video or listening to audio about frequently asked questions
- interviewing service providers about their products and backgrounds
- watching the service being delivered
- watching the product being made
- acting as a consumer yourself to see it from their perspective
All of these activities will help you become more familiar with your product, and will enhance your confidence so that you don’t feel like you are ‘making it up as you go along’.
A word about making stuff up, omitting information and selling things that harm people
Worse than blagging, is knowing that you are actually being asked to say things that are untrue. This includes:
- making up “facts”
- smoothing over product weaknesses
- omitting key information
- knowingly selling something that harms people
In these cases, it’s probably a good idea to move on from this role (and this company!) because it’s hard for others to believe you if you don’t believe in it yourself.
Knowing the value of your product
There is another area about belief that I encounter at times, and that is cognitive dissonance. This is the lack of belief that what you’re selling is worth the price you are asking for it.
This is a very personal perspective, because one person’s assessment of value isn’t the same as another’s. For this reason, you must overcome these personal limitations if you are ever to succeed in selling things you might never buy. There are many things like this, including luxury items, or services that you might find self-indulgent or unnecessarily frivolous.
If you think something isn’t worth the price your company is asking for it, then I suggest you ask why the product is priced as it is. You may find that the pricing method takes into account things that you might have been unaware of, including competition, branding, demand, scarcity, positioning strategy and cost. The point is, it’s best to reserve your judgement for your own purchases, and if you can’t let go of that, it’s probably time to find something else to sell.
Meet our Founders
Rod Solar
Founder & Scalable Business Advisor
Rod co-founded LiveseySolar and acts as a Fractional CMO and Scalable Business Advisor for our customers. He’s on a mission to help transform the lives of 10,000 people with vision correction surgery by 2024. To achieve that, he inspires his customers to make confident decisions that will help 50,000 people take the first step towards vision correction.
LiveseySolar completely transformed the way we were approaching this… We’ve gone from having just the dream of having a practice to having a practice up and running with people making inquiries and booking for procedures… It’s extremely pleasing. We feel lucky we connected with LiveseySolar.
— Dr Matthew Russell, MBChB, FRANZCO, specialist ophthalmic surgeon and founder of VSON and OKKO
Laura Livesey
Founder & CEO
Laura Livesey is the co-founder & CEO of LiveseySolar. She has developed powerful refractive surgery marketing systems that increase patient volumes and profits for doctors, clinics, and hospitals, since 1997.
Rod and Laura know as much about marketing surgery to patients as I know about performing it. They are an expert in the field of laser eye surgery marketing. They know this industry inside out. I believe that they could help many companies in a variety of areas including marketing materials, sales training and marketing support for doctors.
— Prof. Dan Reinstein, MD MA FRSC DABO, founder of the London Vision Clinic, UK
