How to sell without feeling like a piece of sh*t

Happy Thursday at noon everyone!

Today, we’re talking about many entrepreneurs and creative people’s kryptonite:

Sales.

Yechh. Disgusting.

“Why can’t I just do my actual work and make money without SELLING?”

I feel you.

Unless you work for your rich dad - or your dad Rich - you’re gonna have to sell either a:

• product

• service

• and/or yourself

… to:

• customers

• investors

• employers

• employees

• partners

• or donors

As Daniel Pink says in To Sell Is Human, “We are all in sales.”

So whether you like it or not (and I’m guessing you don’t) you have to at least become competent at sales to get anywhere in life.

For me, the problem is philosophical:

I was raised by committed lefties and artists.

The message I received from my family and their friends growing up:

Money, and more broadly capitalism, is an unfortunate bug of our current society, and if you ignore it and focus on making art or helping people, you’ll be much happier in the long run.

I agree with some of this, of course; money is not the path to happiness, and both art and helping people feel great to do. But because I had a judgment about the morality of money, and therefore business, I completely neglected learning about how any of it works.

So fast forward to today:

I’m officially 10 years in to my entrepreneurial “journey.”

(I hate that word. But it fits here.)

I’ve learned that I can sell without feeling like a complete piece of shit, which is big for me.

And if you try these out in your next sales situations, I think they’ll help you to both:

• sell more

• and feel better

So after ALL that context, here are 5 ways to SELL without feeling like a POS (and I don’t mean Point Of Sale):

1. Become a small talk connoisseur

Practice at the coffee shop, in your building, at the dog park or the office.

Take a keen interest in people; this will help you make authentic connections with any potential customer on a call.

2. Ask and listen more than you talk

I struggle insanely with this one 😂 

So I use Fathom AI (no plug, I just like it) not only to take notes, but it shows me what percentage of the conversation I'm speaking in real time!

3. Don't pitch; tell your story

People work with who they like, and they like who they know stuff about.

If you tell them about your story, they'll light up, you'll feel more confident, and the deal is more likely to be closed.

4. Pretend you already know them

This is a weird one, but it's a trick I actually use (on myself):

I pretend I'm already friends with this person.

It makes me more calm, casual, warm, and open in the way I speak to them, and they almost always respond in kind.

5. Sign off by recalling what they told you

Confidence can continue after the call is over.

By signing off with a detail they shared during small talk:

Ex: "Good luck moving your son into his new apartment!"

The call will end in a really friendly and positive way, and you can breath a sigh of relief, knowing you did your best.

That’s it!

This may not be Wolf of Wall Street, Glengarry Glen Ross-type shit, but why would you want to be like that anyway?

Be a real person. Ask real questions. Give real answers. Smile.

You'll feel better, make better relationships, and sell more.

If you liked this email, please let me know, and if you didn’t, please let me know that too! What could I do better?

See ya next week, Greenblast out 🚀