If coaches are not making sales, they could be making several mistakes. Kendra Perry shares the biggest one of all. Tune in to learn the most common pitfall that coaches should avoid. Plus, find out what you need to do instead to increase your chances of making sales and growing your business. Don’t miss out on crucial information from this episode today!
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Not Making Sales? This Is The Biggest Mistake Coaches Are Making
I want to talk about one of my favorite topics to talk about. I want to talk about sales, but for you, I bet this is not your favorite topic. This is a huge block for so many coaches. What inspired this episode was having a DM conversation with one of my Instagram followers. I always welcome new followers. I always reach out, welcome them, and try to start up a conversation with them so I can learn more about them and see if I can serve them. When she started following me, I asked her what she found to be the most challenging piece about starting her business. She said, “Getting clients is a struggle, for sure. I don’t want to be salesy, but I do want to promote my package because I believe in it.”
Let’s talk about this concept of being too salesy. Many coaches are fearful of this, and it leads to them not selling at all, and then they don’t make sales. Do you see the problem here? On one of my HCA coaching calls, one of my students told me that her program had been ready for months, but she hasn’t been able to enroll anyone into it. When someone tells me something like this, I naturally start asking questions to try to nail down what the actual problem is. I asked her how often she was telling people about it on her social media.
She told me that she made one post and got nothing from it. She said she posted a few other times about it on her email list, maybe a couple of other social posts and that’s it. In six months, she only posted a handful of times about her program. Again, do you see the problem? I’m not picking on either of these two beautiful coaches. I’m trying to help you see the issues with this mindset. In order to make sales, we need to sell, but we are afraid to sell because we don’t want to come off as salesy. What a predicament.
Let me give you an example. Do you think Target is afraid to sell? No. Target sells all day every day and they don’t pretend to be anything but who they are. They don’t pretend to be a business and then surprise you at the last minute when they ask you to buy. Imagine you went into a Target and Target was like, “I’m super chill. I want to give you some free samples and be your buddy or friend.” Months later, they are like, “I’m a business and I want you to buy this wardrobe.” That would be weird.
It’s weird when you as a business owner pretend to be anything but what you are. You are not on social media to be people’s friends. You are on social media as a business because you are a business. If you are afraid to be salesy, it’s likely because you feel there’s something slimy, unclean, or sleazy about having something to sell. Do you think Target is slimy for having something to sell? I doubt it because Target is transparent. They sell to you all day, every day, and there’s nothing wrong with having something to sell.
Your business, that’s what you do. Everyone knows that. People know that businesses sell things. Thank God businesses sell things or how would we get anything? Truthfully, and I believe this deeply, selling is serving. You are not a charity. You can’t work for free. Like Target, you can’t give away free clothes and expect to be a profitable or successful business or be able to even have a business. In order for you to help people, they need to invest in your offer or your program. It’s not like you are selling a low-quality lawnmower that’s going to break after a few uses.
You are selling a life-changing transformation, and the only way for you to deliver on that transformation is for people to invest in what you do. This is why I believe selling is serving. The only way that we can serve people on the deepest level that we desire is by selling to them. There is nothing wrong with selling. Nobody thinks there’s wrong with a business selling something. That would be ridiculous. Am I going to go into Walmart and be like, “What is this? You are selling me all this stuff. You are horrible. You should be ashamed of yourself. I’m out of here.” That would be ridiculous. This is why I believe selling is serving.
If you want to sell on social media, you need to sell every single day. I know you are like, “What? Every day?” Yes, every day. Every single day that you show up online in every piece of content you create and in every email that you send to your list, you need to be selling. If you are not selling every piece of content you put out there, then you made that piece of content for nothing. That sucks because creating content is time-consuming.
When I say sell every day, I’m not saying that the only content you put out there tells people to buy your stuff. You still should be telling people to buy your stuff on the regular, but there are also indirect ways of selling as well. Every piece of content you put out there has the intention either directly or indirectly of selling. Let me give you an example. My program is Health Coach Accelerator, but you probably already know that.
You probably heard my ad at the beginning of this episode that told you about Health Coach Accelerator, or if you are following me on Instagram, you have heard me talk about it a lot, or you have heard me mention it in this episode because, at the beginning of the episode, I said, “I had a conversation with one of my Health Coach Accelerator students.”
I’m always mentioning it. I’m mentioning it in every post or I’m promoting my free training. My free training sells Health Coach Accelerator. In every piece of content, I’m talking about it or I’m sharing a story about a student. I’m sharing a testimonial or a student win. I’m mentioning it. I’m telling people that I teach this inside HCA. What does this do? It creates awareness.
Awareness is key. People need to know that you have something to sell. If they don’t know you have something to sell, they don’t know you have a program, or they don’t know the name of your program, that is a big problem because how are they going to buy from you if they don’t even know you have something to sell? If you aren’t over the top enthusiastic about your program, shouting it from the rooftops, why would anyone else care about it? You have to care about it first. You have to think that it’s worth people buying.
If you started following me now, within a couple of pieces of content, you are going to know that I’m a business coach and my program is HCA, and I think that you are silly to not enroll in it. You are going to learn that very quickly about me. Whether you are following me on Instagram, my YouTube channel, or this show, you are going to very quickly understand that I’m a business coach and I sell HCA.
Every piece of content you put online needs to do one of three things and I will give you some examples. 1) It needs to mention and pitch your program, or it needs to pitch a free resource, which gets them onto your email list where you pitch them, your program. Here’s an example of what I when I say mention your program. This could happen in an educational-style post.
Maybe you are telling them about tracking their macros, and you simply say, “Inside my ultimate weight loss method, I work with my clients to find their unique macro ratios based on their fat loss goals,” and then you go into the educational post. Essentially, you seated in your program and thus created awareness. They now know what your program is. They know you have something to sell.
I did that in this episode. How many times have I mentioned Health Coach Accelerator in this episode? Many times. Have I told you to buy it? No, but I have created awareness around it. If this is the very first episode that you were reading, you now know I’m a business coach. I have Health Coach Accelerator. That’s an example of mentioning your program.
2) It needs to directly pitch your program. You could do this in a post that talks about your program. It could be a case study from one of your clients who’s had success. If you haven’t had a client, you can use it yourself. It could be an educational post or some other type of post where at the end, you have a call to action where you tell them about your program and ask them to send you a word to your DMs to learn more. You send them to the link in your bio or you give them a link.
It needs to directly pitch your program and show people how to sign up. A great example is the ad that runs on the front end of my show. I tell you to DM me the words biz audit, and I will give you a free business audit to determine if HCA could be a fit for your business. People take me up on that. I get to have conversations with them in direct message and I make a lot of sales that way.
3) It needs to drive to a free resource. Your goal as a business owner is always to get as many people on your email list as possible because email is the best place to sell. You want to be telling them to download your free thing, whatever it is, and then that’s going to put them on your email list, and then they are going to receive a series of emails that introduces them to you and your program, and then you pitch.
The truth is, if you want to be successful in business, you need to sell every day. With the example I mentioned in the beginning, this woman whom I had a conversation with on Instagram. She said she was struggling to get clients, but she was afraid to sell. That’s where she needs to start. If she wants to get clients, she has to sell. It doesn’t have to be salesy.
I sold to you so many times in this episode, but let me ask you. Did it feel salesy? Are you turned off? If you are turned off, it’s cool. I’m probably not for you and you can go find someone who you resonate with better. We are not for everyone, but I have talked about Health Coach Accelerator. I don’t know how many times, 3, 4, or 5 plus times in this episode. I have mentioned it. You now have awareness around it, and I even directly pitched it to you at the beginning of this episode.
My thoughts are that this didn’t feel salesy and it didn’t turn you off. Nobody wants to have people shouting in their faces telling them to buy things, but we need to tell people that we have a program and we need to show them how to sign up because you are doing people a disservice if they want to work with you, but they have no idea how.
You need to sell every single day, and that doesn’t mean you don’t provide helpful resources. Give away tips. I gave you a whole lot of tips in this episode, but every post or piece of content needs to be intentional, and it either needs to mention your program, pitch your program, or build your email list. The only way that selling becomes slimy is when A) You sell something that you know doesn’t work, and that’s not you.
Especially in the example from this Instagram follower. She says, “I believe in my package.” Why aren’t you talking about it all day every day? That’s not slimy. You believe in it. You are not trying to sell something that you know doesn’t work, and then that brings me to B) Which is to pretend to not have something to sell when you do, because that’s weird.
You are a business owner with an amazing product who has bills to pay. No one thinks there is anything wrong with a business selling something. Every business sells something. If someone thinks something’s wrong with it, then I don’t know what world they are living in, to be honest. Remember, selling is serving. When you enroll people into your program, they can change their lives forever. That’s valuable and it deserves to be promoted all day every day.
I hope this was helpful. I hope you enjoyed this episode of the show. If you like this episode, take a screenshot, share it to your Instagram stories, tag me, and let me know your biggest take-home. It helps me get an idea of the type of content I’m sharing, and if you like it or not. If you want to support the show further, you can give this podcast a five-star review on iTunes. Go to RateThisPodcast.com/wealthy. Thank you so much for tuning in. This was so much fun. I hope this makes selling a little bit less scary, and I will see you next episode at the same time and the same place where I help you become wealthy AF.
Important Links
- Health Coach Accelerator
- Instagram – Kendra Perry
- YouTube – Kendra Perry
- RateThisPodcast.com/wealthy
