The Healing Power of the Sales Conversation

You don’t have to be a coach or healer for a sales conversation to be a healing experience for your client. It is just the same if you are a web designer or an accountant, or providing any other service. If you are working from the heart and are really committed to making a difference to your clients then, rather than leaving the client resistant and feeling they are being bludgeoned over the head until they say yes, a good sales conversation should leave them feeling nurtured and healed, whether or not they decide to work with you.

This is one of the major differences between the modern paradigm of heart-centred selling, as opposed to the traditional sales approach.

In traditional sales the focus is on closing the deal, with a great deal of focus on the outcome for the person making the sale but a lot less focus on the outcome for the client.  The problem with this approach is that if the client does decide to work with you they often do so with a lot of reservations which you may never quite overcome, leading to complaints and dissatisfaction later. Or they decide not to work with you and the experience has been so off putting that they won’t recommend you to anyone else either.

In heart-centred sales we shift the focus to the client. We want to get to understand their problems, their fears, and their hearts desires. We want to really feel what it is they want to get as a result of working with us – is it a new job, improved health, a professional website that gets traffic, less financial stress because the books are balanced? Our focus should be on listening, understanding, trying to put ourselves in their shoes. And when we have this understanding we can then see where our service comes in.

You can then ask yourself, hand on heart, are you the best person to help them achieve that? Will they get value from the money they spend on your service – and more besides?

And ask yourself – or even ask them – if they make no change in this area what will things be like for them in 6 months?  In 2 years?  If you can see the difference that your service will make then you almost have a duty to encourage your client to work with you.  And this is where the power of learning a few heart-centred sales techniques comes in, so that you can gently guide them to make the decision to work with you.   People often do need a nudge to commit and will usually thank you later.

But the important thing in all of this is that the client feels that the interaction with you is a positive experience.They don’t feel that they have been ‘sold to’ at all, and many of my clients actually thank me for really listening to them and taking the time to get to know them and their needs so well. In fact a really good heart-centred sales conversation is more akin to a coaching conversation than a traditional sales appointment – and is far more effective too.

Even if the client decides not to work with you for whatever reason, they will be leaving that conversation having had a very positive and nurturing experience. They will remember you as someone who really cares about them and had their best interests at heart – And didn’t try to push them into something they didn’t want to do.  And even if your service is not right for them this time, you are so much more likely to come back to you when they are ready – or become a raving fan who recommends you to others even without having used your services themselves.

I had this experience myself recently with a web designer who took this approach to the sales conversation. Ultimately I decided not to work with her because the style of her work didn’t reflect the image I wanted to create for my business – but I was so impressed with her consultative approach and the feeling of genuine caring she had for me and my business that I have since sent a whole handful of clients her way.

So keep the focus on the client and what is best for them, and the sales process becomes, instead of something for you to fear and them to resist, becomes a rewarding, nurturing experience for you both – and leads to more clients for you in the long run.