Sales Isn't a Dirty Word—Here's How to Do It Right

You're a builder, you're a creator, you're a problem solver. You're phenomenal at what you do. You can fix that leaky pipe, you can design that stunning website.You can even craft that perfect piece of furniture or provide that invaluable advice. Just brilliant. But then the conversation shifts to sales, and that word alone makes you cringe.Do you feel not in your stomach when you think about sales? Do you picture pushy tactics and manipulative pitches or feeling like you're just bothering people?Hey, maybe like most people, you just avoid it all together, hoping your great work and your. Your sheer talent will just speak for itself.But that discomfort, that fear of being salesy, it's silently costing you clients, it's silently costing you revenue, and it's silently costing you the very growth and freedom that you're working so incredibly hard for. It's keeping your business smaller than it deserves to be. But what if sales wasn't about being pushy, but about being genuinely helpful?What if we could rephrase it and it was about serving, not selling? What if it was about guiding and not manipulating?Well, today on the show, we're going to redefine sales from the gritty entrepreneur for you and give you the concrete steps to embrace it authentically so you can finally unlock the growth that you deserve. So stick with me. That's what I'm covering on today's show.

Running a business isn't easy. It's long hours, tough calls, and relentless pressure. No shortcuts, no handouts. Just grit, grind, and the will to keep going when most would quit.Welcome to Grit and Growth Business, the show for entrepreneurs who know success is built the hard way.Hosted by Ralph Estep Jr. A seasoned business coach, accountant, and fellow fighter in the trenches, each episode brings you real talk, proven strategies, and the unfiltered truth about what it really takes to build something that lasts. Because if you've got persistence, perseverance, and determination, this is the place for you. This is grit and growth business.

Hey there and welcome back to grit and growth Business. I'm Ralph Estep Jr. And I'm so happy you chose to join me this week.Now, last week, we had an incredibly important conversation about hiring without headache. Yeah. We broke it down step by step on how to make that hire that you finally need without getting yourself into a major headache.We broke down the fear of bringing on help, and I gave you the gritty steps to build your dream team. So if you missed it, I'm going to encourage you to go Check it out. You can do that right at Grit and Growth business. Com.Well, this week we're moving into another crucial area for many small business owners, especially those people who are service oriented or craftspeople. A lot of people find it incredibly uncomfortable. And I called today's show. Sales isn't a dirty word. Here's how to do it right.And I know what you might be thinking already. Sales. Ralph, I'm, I'm a professional. I'm a cabinet maker. I'm a marketing strategist. I'm an auto repair shop owner. I'm a plumber. Ralph.I'm really good at doing the work. I'm really good at my craft, and I'm great at serving clients. But Ralph, one I'm not is a salesperson.That's for those slick talkers, those pushy types, the people who make you feel uncomfortable. Those are the people you rap, you avoid at the networking events.You might even have a visceral reaction to the word itself, picturing these aggressive cold calls or manipulative pitches that just a bad taste in everyone's mouth. And because of that aversion, this is just a true statement.Because of those negative stereotypes, many brilliant entrepreneurs, and you might be one of those sitting there right now listening. Just like you, they avoid sales altogether.You hope that your exceptional work, those glowing testimonials, and that sheer talent will simply speak for itself. You believe that if you build it, they will come. Just think of the movie out there just like that, isn't it? And truth is, sometimes they do.A few referrals will trickle in. A new client finds you by happenstance.But if we're being honest with ourselves, it's not consistent enough, it's not predictable enough, and it's certainly not at the scale you truly deserve to build the business and build the life that you dream of. And in my over 30 years of three decades of working with clients, I've seen this pattern play out over and over again.And the truth is, I felt it myself. I felt it deeply. I can remember early in my accounting career, I was fantastic at the numbers. Not to brag, but I could do numbers in my sleep.I was fantastic helping clients manage their finances and solving these massive, complex tax and accounting problems.But when it came time to ask for business or clearly articulating my value in a way that led to a sale, let me just be honest with you, I struggled and I really struggled. It was a really a challenge because I worried about being perceived as being greedy or pushy.I want to Be that greedy or that, that pushy, manipulative, slick talking sales guy. And I guess back then, I just hope referrals would make it magically appear the. The business would just come in by those hopeful referrals.And when I look back at it, that fear of sales kept my practice smaller than it should have been for. For years. I'm talking about for years. Truth is, I.It meant I was constantly just waiting for the phone to ring when I could have been out there proactively building the pipeline. See, that feeling of waiting, that feeling of hoping is incredibly stressful, isn't it? Have you felt it?Maybe you're feeling it right now because in so many ways, it leaves you feeling powerless. And here's a painful truth that you need to hear today on the show.No matter how good you are at what you do, no matter how exceptional your product or exceptional your service is, if you can't effectively communicate your value and confidently guide potential clients to say yes, guess what? Your business will always be capped. Because here's the thing you need to understand. Sales isn't just a department.A lot of people think, well, that's the sales partner. I'll hire a salesperson to go do that. I have a lot of clients. That's what they do. They go hires the salesperson.But sales isn't just the department for your business. It's truly the lifeblood of your business. And it's how you get to do the work that you love so much. And it's how you get to impact more lives.I made my point about sales. I think I have.Well, let's talk about some of the common anxieties and those pain points that make sales feel like that dirty word for so many of us, for people like you and people like me. And then I want to really kind of pivot and talk about what these fears cost you in real terms in your daily grind and in that long term vision.So let's unwind this together. The first anxiety is this gut wrenching fear of rejection. Let me tell you right now, this is universal. We're trained as a young age.No one likes to hear no. I can still remember my mom telling me no. Well, the same holds true now. This is a universal thing. Nobody wants to hear the word no.If we're honest with ourselves, it feels personal, like a judgment on your work or even on you. Oh, I don't want to hear about that. You take it in and you think it's about you and the pain that this causes you.Avoid initiating those Conversations because you don't want to have that rejection. You don't want to hear that word no. Or, or maybe you don't follow up on those promising leads.Maybe somebody was referred to you and you, you had that initial meeting with them, but you're, you're afraid of being salesy. You're afraid they're going to eventually say, you know what, Ralph, I just don't want to work with you. I don't have the time right now.So you don't follow up. And in many cases, you just shy away from clearly asking for the business. You don't have the guts to just say, hey, can I have your business?What's it going to take to earn your business? And that leads to a stagnant pipeline. It leads to missed opportunities that could transform your year, maybe transform your entire business.And there's this constant undercurrent of financial stress because you're wondering where those new business leads are going to come from. Yeah, you're protecting your ego. In the short term, you're not hearing the word no. You're not feeling like you're being attacked.And that's great in the short term, but in the long term, you're starving your business.I can remember myself, I remember putting off making phone calls to potential clients or drafting those emails just because I was so afraid of hearing that word. No, I was, I didn't want to. I was dreaded that. How dare they say no, I'm good at what I do. I'm, I'm really good at what I do.But they, they just don't understand. They, they just kept saying no. And see, here's the thing I need you to hear. This is a self inflicted wound. This is like stabbing yourself.Because you know, oftentimes these self inflicted wounds are the worst kind. They cut us the deepest because we're the one that's jabbing the knife. But guess what? They're totally avoidable.I'm going to talk about that in a few minutes. Well, let's look at another common anxiety. A lot of people suffer from this one too. And I'm guilty of this as well.And that's believing sales is inherently pushy or manipulative. A lot of people associate sales with these negative stereotypes.They, they see the used car salesman with the, the bad suit and, and the overcomed hair. Or they think about that aggressive telemarketer that's always calling you when you sit down at dinner time or always pestering you.They see sales as person who doesn't care about the customer, they just want to make that commission. They just want to earn that revenue, may not make that sale. And deep down, you desperately don't want to be that person.I don't want to be that aggressive telemarketer. I want to be that used car salesman, Ralph. I don't want to be that one that's only looking to make the sale and then cash in and move on.And the pain that this causes, you hold back your genuine enthusiasm. You might have a lot of enthusiasm about your business, but you don't clearly articulate the true benefits of your solution because you're scared.And you fail to. You fail to guide potential clients to a decision that would genuinely help them.Your solution would help them because going back to what I said at the beginning, you might be a phenomenal problem solver. You might be a great artisan, a great craftsman. You can make beautiful stuff.But if you don't sell the solution, if you don't put it out there and ask for the sale, guess what? Here's the problem. Your potential clients remain stuck with their problem, and you remain struggling to find enough work.Hey, if you think about it, that's a lose, lose situation. And I'm going to say something rather brash, but it's the truth.A lot of people laugh when I say this because I say this to my small business clients all the time. In many ways, you have to learn to pimp yourself out. Yes, I said it. Pimp yourself out.And I know that's graphic, but look, if you don't do it, no one else will. Those are just facts. Well, let's look at another common anxiety, and that's this one. Lack of a clear, repeatable sales process.I call it the wing it approach. You might be great at that initial chat. Like you can talk people up. You're an extrovert, you're the life of the party.You connect well with people, but. But then you don't know what to do next because you don't have that clear roadmap.You don't have a set of consistent steps from interested to that paying client. You never thought about, what's that roadmap look like? And this causes a ton of pain.The biggest pain it causes is just inconsistent results because you've got these promising leads who simply fall through the cracks. Yeah, they started strong. You got that referral from that other client or somebody told you about this person. It really needs their solution.And it started strong. You had that initial meeting. Maybe you sent them your. Your proposal, but then you didn't have a system.And you're constantly in this feeling of disorganization because you're winging it. Your, your sales efforts are haphazard and that leads to unpredictable and unreliable revenue.And it's exhausting because you're constantly going to reinvent the wheel. Hey, I got this sales lead. What do I do now? And you're thinking, well, what did I do last time? Well, I got to, I got to send this, I got to do this.And I remember I was trapped in this very same cycle. Early on, I'd have great initial meetings. People would say, hey, you got to talk to this guy Ralph.He's Yuji helps me with my business, he helps me with my taxes. But I can still remember now, and I hate to admit it, I just wait for them to call me back because I had no system for follow up.I had no clear steps, I had no clear way of doing this.And I look at it now, so many good leads just evaporated into thin air because I was just sitting there by the phone or sitting there by the email waiting for them to get back to me. And see, that's what happens when you don't have a system. That's what happens when you don't have a plan.And listen, this is going to sound rather harsh, but with no plan, you do have a plan. You have a plan to fail. Those are just facts. Well, let's look at another common anxiety about selling. It's one that a lot of people are guilty of.And that's not understanding your client's pain deeply enough. See, this is a subtle but critical mistake a lot of people don't understand.It's one of the first things I do when I'm coaching new customers or coaching small business people. I asked them, what is the pain that you solve? A lot of people look at me like, Ralph, what are you talking about? The pain I solve?We're not talking about pain. I'm trying to sell a product. And that's the problem.You talk about all your services, you talk about your features, you talk about the process, but you don't spend enough time talking about the specific agonizing problems your client is facing. Think about that for a second. Are you guilty of that right now? Because the pain of that is your message doesn't resonate.See, clients don't see how your solution directly impacts their life or their business. They don't understand how it solves their specific headache. So if they don't understand those things, guess what? They're not Going to buy.You're just talking at them. You're not talking with them, and that's so important. You're just talking at them, blah, blah, blah, blah.But you're not having that conversation with them. And the truth is, they disengage because you haven't connected with their core needs.See, they're coming to you with a need, and you haven't connected with you just. You're just telling them about your features, and you're telling about your products and your services. And I gotta be totally candid with you.I learned this the hard way. I used to sit there for minutes upon minutes and explain all the intricacies of tax law. And a hard time getting those words out.My clients were sitting across the desk. They were struggling with it too, as well. And as I thought about it, my client's eyes would just glaze over. They were like, rob, you.You lost me 15 minutes ago, dude. Because I was explaining, hey. And I could explain, I could tell them all about the intricacies of the tax law.But then all of a sudden, I learned the secret. And I'm going to share that with you today. And the secret is this. And it's not complicated.You got to get into their pain thinking, Ralph, what are you talking about? Get into their pain? Explain your solution as it relates to the pain they're feeling.For me, when I started asking this question, I started saying, what's your biggest worry about taxes right now? I would ask them, what's keeping you up at night? About your finances. And when I did that, guess what? The conversation changed entirely.Because then I just sat back and they told me what they needed. They told me their pain. They started telling me all about their pain. And here's the most beautiful part of that.As they told me about their pain, my solutions became obvious to them. Because guess what? When we took their pain and applied it to my solutions, it was a solution. It was the resolution.It's funny, they came to the point where they were asking me for the sale because guess what? They needed my solution. Pain solution. Talk about turning things around.And finally, this is what I call the most sinister, sinister anxiety thing of them all. And so many small business people are guilty of this. And I was guilty of this when I first started undervaluing your own worth and your solution.See, this is a big one, and it's deeply personal. Because a lot of people have this uncomfortable feeling about asking for money.Or maybe they just discount their services because they lack confidence in your pricing. I talked about that A lot in episode four. So if you miss, I'm encourage you to go check that out.But so many people discount their services because they feel uncomfortable asking for money, because they lack confidence in the solutions, they lack confidence in their pricing and the pain that this causes. They work harder for less.Listen, and it erodes your profitability and it makes it difficult to sustain your business or at the very least, pay yourself a fair wage because you're not selling your service. In fact, to be very honest and sort of out of left field, you're selling yourself short.If you listen, if you don't see your value, no one else is ever going to see it. And if you don't see your value, you're never going to.You ask people to pay you what you're worth, and that takes a massive toll on your morale and it takes a massive toll on your financial stability. So now I want to ask you right now, do any of these resonate with you?Do any of these things, any of those things we talked about, that, that fear sales, that fear rejection, that, that lack of confidence in your pricing, don't want to be pushed. You don't want to be that used car salesman. Do any of these resonate with you? I want you to hear me right now. You're not alone in this.These are very common fears and they're deeply ingrained in most small business people. But here's the beautiful part of this, and I'm so happy that you've held on this long.These fears are fears that can be transformed into powerful strength. You just need the right mindset and, and a gritty, authentic approach. See, the power of doing sales right isn't about becoming someone you're not.A lot of people say, well, Ralph, you know this. I took this course and he, they wanted me to be this salesperson, Ralph. I'm just not a salesperson. I don't care about that.Because when you really learn the secret to this and when you really study it, it's not about being a salesperson, but what it is about is embracing your true role as a problem solver, embracing your true role as a guide and a trusted advisor. Because in the end, it's about genuinely serving your clients and helping them make the best decision for them.Which if you're providing the right solution, it means they're going to buy your solution.See, so many people lose sight of this, but when you view sales as a service, as an act of helping, as an act of helping their discomfort, it begins to melt away. That discomfort of sales begins to melt away because you're viewing it as a service.You're providing a service, you're helping someone, and it transforms it into an act of connection, not being pushy. So let's talk about how we do this, because more importantly, how we do it with impact.Because I want to share some really actionable steps that you can take this week to start embracing sales authentically and effectively. Now, before I get started with the answers, I want to remind you of something. I created an action sheet for today's episode.I do that with all the episodes of grit and growth business. And you can get that by going to gritandgrowthbusiness.com action.But as we get back to the solution today, I want to start off with this very basic thing. It starts with a mindset shift, and this is crucial. You've got to reframe sales as problem solving service.See if you still have that sales mentality that I'm gonna go sell them, I'm gonna go make that sale, I'm gonna get them to say, yes. It's not going to work well for you.But if you can reframe sales as a problem solving service, and trust me, this is a foundational shift, but it'll change your internal dialogue, because in your own mind, and I remember going through this metamorphosis myself, instead of thinking, ugh, I gotta sell something, I started to think about this. I started to think, I get to help someone solve a real problem. I get to help someone solve a real problem. It even feels better, doesn't it?I certainly felt better for me. And see, then your role isn't to convince or manipulate somebody. See, that's the pushy part of the nonsense sales culture that we all buy into.But that's not your role. It's not your role to convince or manipulate somebody. The true role is to understand a client's pain point. What is it they're feeling?What are the pains that they're going through? When somebody would come in to see me, they had just gotten an IRS notice. Guess what their pain point was? They were scared to death of the irs.I had to understand what that looked like. I had to share that moment with them. I had to really get into the details of what was bothering them.And then I had to take the next step and diagnose the issue. Okay, what's going on here? Why did they get this notice? What is this notice telling me? What is the impact of them?And then I could just confidently present my solution. And oftentimes it was a simple Resolution, because it was logical and it was beneficial. It was the next step that they needed to take.And see, when you reframe sales like that, you're not taking. You're giving immense value. And for me, this was a revolutionary change.See, when I stopped thinking about closing a deal, a lot of people get stuck on that. Well, I'm going to close so many deals this week. I'm going to make this many sales this week.When I stopped thinking about that and started thinking about helping a client solve their biggest financial headache, guess what? My conversations became more natural, just felt better. I was more empathetic, and surprisingly, guess what?My conversion rates went up dramatically because people would say to me, Ralph, I need your solution. What was the secret sauce? I listened to them. I understood what they were going through. I understood their pain.And as I did that, the pressure just lifted and melted away. So it starts with that mindset shift.Well, then we got to move on to the second thing, and that's deeply understand your client's core pain before you even start talking about solutions. That's the problem. You so many salespeople, those salesy, pushy people, they start yapping about their solutions.But that's not where it's got to start. It's critical that you start understanding their core pain first before you even pitch your service or even pitch your product.Ask questions, take a genuine interest in why they're sitting in front of you, why they called you in for that service, why they're looking for your product, and then shut up and listen. See, that's another problem. So many, they go on and on and on about their process, and we do this and we do that.They haven't listened to their customer. So stop and listen. I mean, really listen. Ask these questions. Start thinking about what keeps them up at night.See, when I was dealing with people with IRS notices, they were up at night because they were worried about the IRS coming and taking all their stuff or attaching their wages or filing a lien against their property or maybe even charging them criminally and putting them in jail. That's what was keeping them up at night. So ask those same questions. What keeps them up at night?Ask them what are their biggest frustrations related to the problem that you solve? See, in my case, most of my clients are trying to do this on their own.They had prepared their own taxes, or maybe they used one of those online services and they were just frustrated with this money. Would say to me, Ralph, you know, I didn't know what I was doing, but I Didn't want to spend the money to come see somebody to do it myself.So I just did it myself. And that was a frustration point. So I had to understand that and I had to think about, okay, well, how am I going to solve that problem?Ask your customers that same question. Ask them this question. What are they really hoping to achieve? See, when somebody was sitting in front of me, guess what they wanted to achieve?That that IRS notice going away. They wanted to get that letter from the IRS that says no adjustment. Don't worry about it, Mr. Jones. Everything is going to be okay.You can ask the same things with you does it depends on what you're selling. Ask them or try to understand what they're really hoping to achieve.And if you really want to connect with them, go deeper, ask and think about what's the impact of this problem on their business or on their life. Frame that. Talk about the pain. Like, for example, I'm getting back to the same example I'm talking about. The pain for this was people couldn't sleep.People were worried to death. They were scared to death of the irs, that big, bad irs.Well, maybe you've got similar situations with the solutions that you sell, but understand what the impact is on them because then you can use that to build that relationship, build that rapport.See, because the more that you understand their specific pain, I'm talking about the pain points they're feeling, the more that you understand that, the more clearly and powerfully that you can articulate how your solution is that direct bridge to their desired income. Because that's the end of the end of the game. Here's the deal. You want to build a bridge. On the one hand you've got these pain points.On the other side, you've got these solutions. While the goal is to build that bridge between the two, that's the key.But you got to understand their pain and articulate your solution of how to get that bridge built. So you got to understand this absolute fact. And this is where most people lose out on sales.People buy solutions to their problems, not just features. To be honest with you, people could care less about the features. They want a solution to their problem. So many people get hung up on.Yeah, but Ralph, we do this and we do this, and my competition doesn't do that. Ralph, who cares?The person standing in front of you, sitting in front of who's on the phone, who's trying to get your services is asking for a solution to their problem. Yeah, they might appreciate the features, but what they really want is A solution to the problem.I remember once I had a client who came to me saying they needed better bookkeeping software. That's what they came and say, Ralph, you know, I just need better bookkeeping software. And listen, I could have jumped right in.Okay, well let me say this, and I can say that, and I can do this, but I knew better. And see, after asking a few questions, I realized their pain wasn't the software at all. It wasn't the software.What it really was was the stress of constantly missing deadlines and the fear of that IRS audit.They were getting tired of paying penalties and fees because their stuff wasn't organized and they were worried to death that they were going to get that dreaded IRS audit letter.But again, if I didn't understand that, if I didn't really understand the problem, I could have sold them all kinds of solutions, could have talked about the features of this software and the features of this software and they would have been like, oh, my eyes are glazed over. What are you saying to me? Because what I realized is my solution wasn't just software. It's not what they were looking for.What they were looking for was peace of mind and compliance. So what did I talk to them about? Hey, let me help you on this process.Let me tell you how I can partner with you and keep you out of hot water with the irs. One things I say all the time, what they were looking for was peace of mind and compliance. They didn't care about the software.They wanted the result of the software and that's what they bought. Moving on to the next thing you absolutely got to do, you've got to create a roadmap. I've said this on my show many times.If you're trying to get from point A to point B and you don't have a map or you don't have a plan of how to get there, you're never going to find your destination. So I'm going to tell you right now, develop a simple natural discovery to decision process. That's your roadmap.It doesn't need to be complex, it doesn't need to be spent in these multi stage sales funnels. I see these clowns on YouTube and TikTok and all these social medias. Well, I'm going to help you build this multiple stage sales funnel.That's great, but you don't even need. It doesn't need to be that complex. You can start with something simple, some repeatable pathway from potential client to the ending salesperson.So here I'm Going to give you now a very simple, very basic, simple process that I recommend. Step number one is you start with that discovery call or that meeting like I've talked about several times now.Focus on listening and understanding their pain. Don't even worry about pitching yet. Just sit down and say, hey.One of the things that I do, client sits down in front of me, I say, hey, what can I do for you today? That's where I start. And I start listening, I start asking probing questions. Sometimes people say, Ralph, you're better than my counselor.Because I'll ask them, how does that make you feel? What were you scared of? What was bothering you? So I don't even need to pitch my result.Listen, I had a conference call the other day, one of these discovery meetings. I booked these free 15 minute calls and you can book one with me too.You can go right to our website, you can do that@gritandgrowthbusiness.com but anyway, I had one of these calls and I just. It was a very quick call, but within about four or five minutes the guy's like, hey, where do I sign? Why?Because I listened to him, I understood what he was asking me, I understood his pain, I didn't have to pitch. He goes, Ralph, where do I sign up? I hadn't even asked for the sale. So start there with that discovery call and meeting.And then step two is present your solution, present your proposal. And this is where you've got to understand, you've got to clearly articulate how your product or service is going to solve their specific problem.See, if you've listened, you understood their problem, then pivot that and say, okay, here's how I'm going to solve that problem. And use their language. Don't use your language. One of the greatest compliments I ever got from a client was this.He said, ralph, you put things in terms that I can understand. Listen, you've got to do the same thing.Understand their problem and understand how your solution solves their problem and explain to that in plain, simple language that they can understand. Sell the benefits, sell the removal of the pain, sell the solution, not just the features.Third thing you absolutely must do is you must have clear next steps and a call to action. As you're doing these discussions, you've got to start thinking about how do you guide them confidently to a decision.I want to give you some key speaking points that I recommend, what I'll call power phrases, if you will, things like this. The next step is to sign the proposal here. See, that comes from a place of confidence. You set the proposal. Here, let me sign right here.Let me send you a contract. Let me sign you. You want to get started right away today, right? Or maybe this one. Let's schedule your onboarding call to get started.How about I put it on the calendar right now? You notice I haven't asked for the sale. Just said, hey, let's get started.You're just assuming because you've done such a good job of understanding their painter. Like, yeah, I got to get this, Ralph. Or you say something like this. I recommend we move forward with X. Doesn't that sound like a good plan?So you want them to start saying yes, but they're not going to say yes to the features. They're not going to say yes to any of the things, but they're going to say yes to the solution.Because you've got to have a process that brings clarity and predictability to both you and the client. You want to eliminate all the friction. When I do coaching with people, the biggest things I coach with is try to remove the friction.You got to make that process feel smooth and not pushy. Just a real simple, flowing process. Kind of like a dance, if you will.Well, now let's talk about that thing I just mentioned a few minutes ago, and that's learning to speak their language.A lot of salespeople, a lot of artisans lose out because they don't know how to articulate their value and speak the language that the customer can understand. It's so easy to list what your service is. Oh, we do this, and we do this and we do this. But that's not the right answer. You've got to focus.And I want to use a word here that's strong, but you got to focus relentlessly on what it does for the client. I could care less about what your service is. You need to focus on what it does for the client. What are the pain points and what is it solving?Answer these questions. What outcome do they get? See, that's the key to this whole thing. Articulate what the outcome is. Articulate what problem is removed.Hey, if you do this, I'm going to remove this problem. You're not going to have this problem anymore if you do such and such. If you use my service, if you use my solution, and then this one is beautiful.Start thinking about what desire is fulfilled. Go back to my example of that person with the IRS notice. What's their desire? He wanted to be done. They want to not be worried about.When that person came in and said to me, they needed new bookkeeping software. That wasn't their desire.Their desire was to not worry about getting audited by the IRS and to have clean and clear books so they can make better decisions. So what did I.When I talked about my process, I didn't talk about, well, I'm going to give you QuickBooks online and I'm going to do this reconciliation. I'm going to do. No, I talk about the desire. You want clean, clear books that you don't get audited.I'm going to keep you out of hot water with the irs. Yes, Ralph, where do I sign? See, consider using language like this. Talk about the features. Like, for example, I use this one.We offer comprehensive bookkeeping services. Comprehensive. They think about, oh, that's massive. That's going to be huge. I could have got into the detail.We're going to do this and then we're going to do this. No, they don't need to hear that. They want. They want that desire. They want something comprehensive. Or maybe talk about this one.Hey, listen, it's a great one. Talk about value.We free up 10 hours of your time each month so you can focus on growing your business, not chasing receipts, giving you back your evenings. Tell you a little story here. I once met with an attorney, went into his office. He said, Ralph, I really need somebody to help me do my books, man.I'm a good attorney, but these books are a disaster. I looked at him for a few minutes and he was right. His books were. Were a disaster. So I sat down with him, I went through everything he was doing.I said, all right, well, let me do this. I'm gonna, let me go back to my office, Let me put together a proposal. Let me, let me, let me dive into what you've got going on here.So about 24 hours later, I had examined everything, and it was an absolute mess, to be very candid with you. But I got back on the phone, I did a good job of follow up. This was early in my career, but I actually understood to follow up.So I called him, I said, okay, listen, we'll just say his name was Hal. So I called Hal and I said, okay, Hal, listen, I've got a proposal for you here, but let me tell you about what this is going to do.I'm saying, going to relieve you from this and that and the other thing, and it's going to cost you $2,000 a month. Well, you could have heard a pin drop, man. He was like, What? How much? $2,000 a month, Ralph.And I said, yeah, that that's what this is going to cost to do this crack, did this comprehensive service. He says, Ralph, there's no way I can afford that. And I said, how? Wait a second. See, this is where you sell the desired outcome.Because one of the things that House said during the meeting, he said, ralph, I've got no time.I spend hour upon hour chasing this bookkeeping software, doing this billing, keeping track of these reconciliations because the state bar is out to get me. So I, right at that moment, I said, how. How many hours a week do you spend doing accounting work? I said, be honest.And I knew he was going to lowball it because he didn't want to admit that he's not an accountant. That's okay. He's a good attorney, but he's not an accountant. He says, ralph, I guess I probably spend about 10 hours a week.I said, okay, that's good information. No, I said, so 10 hours a week? I said, what do you bill your hourly rate for doing law work? He said, $300 an hour.Okay, so what you're telling me is that 10 hours a week you're spending doing accounting work, and those 10 hours you can't do legal work? I said, do you have enough business? He says, Ralph, I've got more business than I can handle.He said, I'm thinking about hiring another attorney because I can't handle it all. I said, so wait a second. How? You don't want to pay me $2,000 a month, but I'm going to save you $3,000 a week.If I do the math, that's $12,000 a month. He says, ralph, how do you figure that? I said, okay, think about it. How? So I get my, my, my thinking cap on with him.Ten hours a week at $300 an hour is $3,000 a week. Multiply that times four. How? That's $12,000 you're going to pay me two. You're going to make ten. I said, you know what? I'm not charging you enough.How about we make my fee five? He goes, Ralph, no, no, no. I'm signed. Where do I sign?See, because I was able to sell him on the value I was able to sell him on, that freed up 10 hours a month for him. It was 10 hours a week. It was $12,000. His net after my fee was an additional $120,000 a year in income.Now, another thing you could do is you can sell them on the feature. For example, maybe you're selling software. You can say, hey, our software Has X, Y and Z functions.Or maybe our software automates your inventory tracking, cutting your waste by 15% and ensuring you never miss a sale because of stock outs. So those are the type of things that will really help you speak their language.Practice these value statements until they feel natural, until they feel authentic and they deeply resonate with you. One of the things that I think has been really helpful for me is role play.Find somebody, find a spouse or a friend and say, hey, let's talk about objections. Present your solutions and ask them, hey, how did that hit you? And then just practice and practice and practice.Because after a while it's going to be natural, it's going to be authentic, and it's going to resonate with you. Because if you do this correctly, you're going to speak directly to your client's desires and your pain points. How will the attorney.I spoke directly to his desire. He needed to free up his valuable time and the pain was, it was costing him money. I accomplished both and I had a client there.And finally, here's the other thing I'm going to recommend. And this is where a lot of people drop the ball.So many people that I know that do great services, they're great service technicians and all those type of things, they don't follow up. So you got to embrace follow up as a service. So let's take a few minutes and talk about what I'll call the lost art of connection.See, because here's the problem. Most sales are lost in the follow up, or more accurately, let me say it this way, in the lack thereof.See, if I hadn't picked up the phone the next day and called Hal, it would have been easy for me to sit on my hands and figure, well, you know, if Hal's interested, he kind of hemmed and Hana, I'll sit and wait for him to call me. No, you heard what I said. 24 hours later I called him and presented a solution for his desires and his needs and his wants.You got to do the same thing. See, if a client expresses interest. A polite, value driven follow up isn't being pushy, it's just not.It's being genuinely helpful because here's what it's going to do. It's going to show that you're reliable. It's going to show that you're ready and still ready to solve their problem.So one of the things that I'm going to recommend is set a reminder, maybe do it right in your phone, put it on your calendar within 24 or 48 hours after a proposal or that initial conversation. See, so many people think I'm going to send this proposal out and Ralph, if they're interested, they'll get back to me.I don't want to be pushy, I don't want to be that salesperson. It's just hounding them.This is where so many people fall short because this is, this is not where, this is not what people want to do, but this is where you can truly shine. And I remember back in my early career, I was terrible at this because I felt like I was bothering people. How was the exception?But most of the people like I would send them a proposal and just pretend, well, don't get back to me. Unfortunately, many times I'd find out afterwards it got stuck in there in their spam folder. They never got the proposal.They didn't understand it because I was so worried I was going to be bothering somebody.But when I really examined it, when I started reframing it as ensuring they have all the information to make a good decision because that's really what it was, I had to reframe it. And then I would ask them simple follow up questions. Hey, did you have any follow up questions?I know we had a lot to talk about when you were in or when I gave you that proposal, but did you have any follow up questions? Because many times they'd have a follow up question but they didn't want to ask because I don't want to bother Ralph. See, it's a two way street.But when my follow up became consistent, when I consistently did that follow up, guess what happened? My sales increased significantly because my mindset had shifted. It wasn't a chore anymore, it was a service. See friends, sales isn't a dirty word.We started off talking about, hey, sales is a dirty word. A lot of people still think it's a dirty word. Like you don't want to be that used car salesman.That seller of timeshares is another one that just drives me crazy. Sales isn't a dirty word. It's not a dark art when you really think about it. It's a necessary, honorable and powerful act of service.See, that's the mindset you gotta have.Sales is necessary, it's honorable and is truly a powerful act of service because it's how you connect your unique solutions to the people who desperately need them. Hear me on that. People desperately need your solutions. They desperately need to get out of pain. And by selling, that's how you connect them to that.And when you can embrace sales Authentically when you can view it as guiding and helping. You're not just growing your business. That's going to be part of it and that's going to be a beautiful part of it.But you're going to be empowering your clients to overcome their challenges and you're stepping into your full potential as a gritty, impactful entrepreneur. I start at the beginning. You're a great artisan. You're a great sales provider. You're great at doing what you do. You've got the grit to create.But now I want to challenge you to apply that grit to confidently connect and convert. And as I said a few minutes ago, to help you with this critical transformation, I've created a simple action plan sheet for this episode.And guess what it's called? It's called sales isn't a dirty word. Here's how to do it right. And as I said, the beginning.This is a free downloadable sheet that will guide you through that reframing your sales mindset. I'm going to talk to you about understanding client pain and developing a simple sales process and really practicing your value articulation.This is a practical tool to help you embrace sales authentically and effectively.And as I said earlier, you can download it right now by visiting our website@gritandgrowthbusiness.com again, that's grit and growth business.com action. Go to grit and growth business.com action and download the action plan sheet and and start confidently converting your value into revenue today.Listen, don't let those old fears or negative stereotypes hold you back from the essential work of sales. And it is essential your business and your clients deserve for you to master this skill. So embrace it, practice it and listen.Just sit back and watch the impact and watch your revenue grow. Because guess what? You've got this and I'm here walking alongside you every step of the way. So thank you for joining me on Grit and Growth Business.As always, I'm committed weekly to bringing you honest conversation and practical strategies every single week to help you build your business the right way. Now listen, next week we're going to explore another very crucial topic, and that's grit and growth. My story, my strategy.I'm going to tell you about my own journey, the lessons I've learned and the core strategies that allow me to build and rebuild businesses. And listen to this. Makes me feel old. But build and rebuild over three decades. So you don't want to miss that deeply personal episode.I want to also remind you that I do offer coaching services as well. You can learn more about that@gritandgrowthbusiness.com/coaching we can have a discussion, just a quick discovery call and discuss your business.And again, don't forget to download our plan action sheet for this episode. That's@gritandgrowthbusiness.com action. So as I always end the show, intentions are great, but it's the actions that matter.So go put this into action because you can do this. I have confidence in you. God bless you. Now get to work.