When you think about sales does the image of a dirty slimy used car salesman pop into mind? Women sabotage themselves with unnecessary frustration and feeling stuck in crappy situations in life, staying in lousy relationships or lousy jobs because they are afraid to put themselves out there and because they don’t want to sell or be seen as that slimy car salesman. These entrepreneurs struggle in business and avoid sales like the plague but sales are the most important thing to focus on if you want to grow your business and make more money. I see many entrepreneurs struggle because they let the fear of failure, the fear of rejection and the fear of others judging them stand in the way of their greatness. If you can get over your fear and learn sales, you can begin to write your own checks! That is a very empowering feeling!
Sadly, the famous comedian and actor Robin Williams passed and it triggered thoughts about death, my own death. Coupled with the big hurricane scare here on the islands in the summer time I was thinking about my own demise and if I died right now could I say, I gave my life everything I had? Could I say, I showed up and played full on and went after all the things I really wanted to do with Gusto? Could I say 100% that I was doing my best and the answer was yes! These thoughts I shared in a mini video to my subscribers and email list.
I had also received a beautiful video testimonial from one of my clients in my $10k 30-day program a day before which helped shape this idea to share this video story about how Robin Williams death. His death triggered my thinking about fulfilling my potential and then put it out to my list with a call to join my program and add that video testimonial at the end. Well I got a nasty email back from a lady I had a conversation with a few weeks back who had declined joining my program and now it seems she has a vendetta. I’ll share with you her email because it beautifully makes a few great points.
Vanessa,
I think it is a shame and crass that you opportunistically exploit the suicide death of Robin Williams -- a depressed, newly diagnosed Alzheimer's patient, recovered addict and accomplished comic genius, a famous celebrity and unique soul -- to promote your own business. You are the ultimate salesman!
Why not just promote your business without linking it to Robin Williams? Just send the testimonial without the reference to a genius whose sad and unfortunate death is in the news.
Especially since just last week you told me there were only TWO places left in your 10K in 30 days program to pressure me to sign up for the coaching program and now, you say that you have opened up TEN more spaces of which SEVEN are now available. I further question your integrity. I have NO DOUBT that your services help people and that you can work magic.
I am sorry that you feel the need to employ sales techniques to the extent you do, without true reflection. The spiritual component is not there as much as you claim.
I also thought that your comments to me about meteorologists as scare mongers`` were insensitive and ignorant. Tell that to the people whose homes were destroyed or who lost their lives due to Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Sandy, which hit NYC where I live, or the people affected by Hurricane Haiyon in the Philippines. It is too easy for you to diss others while promoting yourself. Youth is folly! Added perspective and maturity would up your game considerably.
Since I am not on Facebook and I choose not to post these comments on twitter they shall remain private. Nonetheless, I wish you to consider them.
Best,
Name
WOW!
Here’s the deal folks, no matter what you say you are going to have haters. I remember what my marketing mentor Adam Urbanski once told me, “You have to be an expert and experts have opinions. People will love you or hate you yet, they WILL notice you! So it’s best to have an opinion and get good or bad attention than no attention at all!”
Here was a woman who had done all sorts of programs and was totally broke. She had no money to invest in herself and was tired of being so smart and broke. She is a talented brilliant woman in her 50’s and you can tell by her writing she is a good writer! She’s broke because she’s spending too much time criticizing other people’s work instead of promoting her own.
The comment about the, ‘ULTIMATE salesperson’, shows what kind of resistance she has to sales and sales people. You’ll never be great at sales if you hate sales people or have something against them and it’s a real serious block many people have!
You must transform selling to serving. When you are so confident that your product or service gets people results, you want to share it, scream it at the top of the rooftops for everyone to hear! I know I will offend some people, I’ll be the first to tell you, I am who I am, like me or leave me, I will never contort myself just to be liked by others nor will I succumb to the thought that everyone has to like me. That’s a recipe for failure right there, needing others approval all the time.
Use the power of story because people want to know about you, what you think and about your life. What would you rather read, a good story or some blatant, lame sales pitch? I’m really very authentic and real with my audience. I like to share the things that I learn and the things that inspire me. Inspiration is ideas from spirit.
I had this idea and I acted on it, then this lady completely misunderstood the message that I was trying to convey. I believe it’s because she must now find fault with me and my program so she can feel good about being a chicken and deciding against it. You see everyone is selling all the time. You even sell yourself on things just as this lady did with my program. Now she is on a mission to prove that I am a slimy ULTIMATE sales monger. She’s selling to herself and searching for reasons why I am wrong and bad.
The piece about opening up more spaces in my program is true. People make decisions based on fear of loss more than on greed. It’s a known and proven fact. You can talk to the cows come home about heart centered sales. It never changes; people will take action based on fear of loss, period.
I have tested this and it’s a proven deal for me. I know my program rocks. I have plenty of wonderful testimonials from clients who have benefited, taking their Power Back. It is precisely for people who have such an aversion, fear and resistance around sales. It’s just like giving medicine to a kid. You sugar coat it, you sneak it into their cereal because you know it’s going to help them. Who cares about how you get it into them as long as they take it, they’ll feel better. I know many of you reading this won’t like hearing that, but it’s true.
You know in the mop sales we had a script and it went like this, “Hey buy this thing today, I have this special package and I don’t know how many of these I have left,” type of deal. “So let me know right now!” and you know what - it was a blatant lie.
We had boxes and boxes and boxes of those special packages! A lie, a big fat lie and I lied every single day, all day long to people. All day long I lied to people, not about how great the product was, not about the effectiveness of the product, I lied about the quantity I had left because without a limiter no one gets off their behind to make a decision. Anyone in sales will tell you the same exact thing. I get it - some people hate that about sales. Stop and think about the last time you made a big buying decision. What was the actual motivator to buy NOW, was it a sale price? Again, a sale only for a limited time, after that you lose and then you are sold on, “Get it while quantities last.” Another limiter is because someone else might come along and buy it. This is classic sales 101. Master the basics of sales and you really get to make an impact and difference in the world.
Nothing happens until the sale is made. Think about this. Sales is really the art of transformation. You buy a plane ticket to India to study with a spiritual Guru, who could absolutely change your life! Nothing happens until you buy that plane ticket. Nothing! You’re a woman, you buy a new pair of sexy heels and every time you put them on, world look out! Nothing happens until you buy those shoes. Sales is the link between the thing you want and having it. Even selling yourself on why or why not is a good or bad decision. You will use excuses or reasons in either direction just as this lady did.
The last part of her email about the meteorologists is just way off. Listen you can’t take away experience from someone. You just can’t. Last year I was stuck out in a remote area back in Kalalau during a tropical storm, there were warnings, airplanes, sirens, rain and high winds. We had to be rescued out of the valley on a boat by swimming out to the boat in mountainous swells, climbing into the boat and then the boat’s engines crapped out on us. There were 12 people being pushed out into the rocks in a tiny boat in big swells. OMG horror of horrors! Miraculously the engine restarts, we get back to the bay and the sun is out with only high winds. It was a big scare for nothing. So you know, this year I decided, “Prepare Vanessa but don’t freak out!” I think the media totally abuses the population with massacres, manipulates and propagates unnecessary fear, which is why I do not watch TV or the news. It’s all negative;; if something is really important, someone will tell me.
Yes, there are hurricanes. I was simply saying I wasn’t buying into it based on my experience from last year. If a hurricane had hit, I would have looked like a real jerk. Instead, look at that, my intuition was right it was nothing but some high winds and a little rain again.
The lesson I want to share with you is this, be an expert, have opinions and get ready to infuriate a few people along the way. Don’t let fear hold you back from writing your own paycheck because sales will transform your life! The amount of people who will benefit from you putting yourself out there will way outnumber the number of people who will criticize you. There is no point in worrying about those people who will criticize you because they are selling themselves on why you are a villain and you’ll never be able to please everyone;; EVER! Don’t even try. Just put your focus on sales, on serving the people by getting out of the fear and into the service.
Many women are waking up to wanting to serve, to help people and do so by monetizing their knowledge in new ways. Coaching and consulting are perfect avenues for such women. You have a choice to discover your power and really influence people when you decide to master the art of sales. You can totally take your Power Back and thrive! Enough of this learning, without earning mode. The perpetual cycle of taking course after course after course without ever learning about how to sell their services. Also, this idea that money is not important - let me tell you, it is. Money affects everything, your relationships, your health, your family, your freedom and time, everything!
I will never forget what the author of the book Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, T. Harv Ecker once told an audience that I was in years ago. He said, “If you want to be in the top percentage of the earners in the world, learn sales. A good salesman will never be without work.” He was right. Learning sales was the absolute best crash course in self-confidence, the art of transformation, engagement and human psychology I could have every gotten!
So decide right now if you’re unhappy with your income, to become a better sales person, even if that means selling yourself on the idea about why it’s a good time to attract a better job, start that new career, or take on a sales position to prepare you for selling your own services.