HOW TO OVERCOME YOUR FEAR OF SELLING

Selling is a skill and a mindset, it can be learned even if it does not come naturally. One of the biggest things that can hold you back from selling more products is, fear of selling. For some, talking to people and making suggestions comes easily, for others that are more introverted, it can be a whole new learning curve. Most beauty practitioners are caring, gentle people and by nature can be an introvert. So to stand out, and put yourself out there can be uncomfortable to downright painful. What's at the core of these uncomfortable, painful feelings is our fear. 

FACING OUR FEARS

know your fears

There are many difficult and frightening times when we have to face our fears. And, the surprising truth is, we all come face to face with our fears eventually. Here are just some examples of what people fear the most:

• learning a new skill
• death
• loneliness
• being in an unfamiliar place
• a new job
• becoming a parent
• public speaking
• getting up on stage to perform
• making a difficult decision
• approaching new people
• handling a difficult situation
• fear of failure
• fear of ridicule
• fear of rejection
• selling retail products

UNDERSTAND THE FIGHT OR FLIGHT RESPONSE

When you experience fear, your body is primed for flight or fight. You can either back down, hide, or run away, or you can be courageous, stand tall and take action. The difference is knowing when is the time to back down and when is the best time to take action.

Fear is not always a bad thing. Fear can be very useful because it cautions you and alerts you to danger. If there is no immediate danger to you or the people around you, such as selling a product to your customer, then you can take control of your fear. But too often, we allow our fear to control us and to control our lives. Do not let fear allow to control you. If you do, you will miss out on the life changing opportunities and you may never experience life to the fullest. You need to stay calm, take control of your feelings, weigh up the options of the situation and then make a rational decision that will help you and serve you best.

MY STORY - HOW I BUILD MY CONFIDENCE

One of the things that have helped me overcome my fears is learning how to get into the right state of mind, where I can control my decisions, and my fear is no longer controlling me. Many years ago, I attended the Anthony Robbins “Unleash the Power Within” weekend, which was absolutely life changing.

On the final night of the workshop weekend, we were given the option to challenge ourselves, to majorly step out of our comfort zone, face our fears and do the fire walk. I didn’t want to do it at first. The fire pits were white hot, and radiating incredible heat when we stood near them. I saw all the people in front of me doing it, they didn’t get hurt, and when they overcame their fears and did it, they were jumping around with joy and their friends ran to them to congratulate them. The incredible sense of power and achievement they exuded was inspiring. I thought if they can do it, so can I.

So then, I made up my mind I will do it, and I started focusing and getting myself into the right state of mind as we were taught. This meant I wholeheartedly knew I will do it, I saw myself do it in my mind and felt the exhilaration of having done it. I felt an intense belief in myself in every fiber of my being. Then, I went for it. And I did it!!! What an incredible experience it was!

REINFORCE AND REMEMBER YOUR SUCCESS

Enjoy the feeling of success and file them away so that you can tap into them when you need them again. This was an extreme way to teach us how to overcome our fears, to be brave and to just do it. The most important thing is to reflect on your success and how it makes you feel. Enjoy the feelings of success and file them away so that you can tap into them when you need them again. The feelings of success are the kind of experiences in your life you want to file away and remember. Your successes give you more confidence. The more successes you create in your life, the more confident you will become.

MISTAKES WILL LEAD TO SUCCESS

Success does not happen straight away. Sometimes we have to make mistakes and learn from them before we succeed. The light bulb was not invented overnight. It took thousands of experiments to make it work. Each failure, however, will bring you closer to success.

 

In sales and customer service we are challenged every day to talk to clients, to educate and to make product and treatment recommendations. From time-to-time, we also have to deal with difficult situations. For example, having to call your customer if you haven’t seen them for some time to invite them back in; approaching a new customer; making product recommendations and asking for a sale, or dealing with complaints and unhappy customers.

Instead of focusing on your fear and how uncomfortable it makes you feel, remember your previous successes you had, tap into those feeling that made you feel confident, then focus on the client in front of you to determine their beauty needs and what the solution is. Then teach them how to get the results they want.

Here are practical tips for facing your fears and building your self-confidence.

1. Take control of your fears

When you are faced with having to sell products and it is making you feel uncomfortable, take a deep breath and count to ten as you slowly exhale. Focus on your breathing. This will help to distract your mind from your discomfort. Do this once or twice until you feel calm and collected. If this does not help, you need a change of scenery to divert your mind. Go outside, get some fresh air, have a drink of water, close your eyes and tell yourself everything will be all right. After all, what’s the worst thing that can happen? There is no real physical danger. The world will not end if they say no. Remember the answer will always be “No” if you don’t ask. The answer will sometimes be “Yes” if you do ask. Which gives you and your customers a better chance of success?

2. Check your self-talk

Whenever you feel yourself thinking a negative thought, delete it, erase it and create a new positive statement. Listen to what you are saying to yourself. Are you saying things such as, “They probably can’t afford it”, “I don’t want to appear pushy” “They probably don’t need it” “I don’t believe in my abilities to help them” “I really hate selling”? This kind of negative self-talk will drive your behavior, your attitude and contribute to low self-esteem and low confidence. This kind of self-talk will lead to failure. The good news is, you can and have the power to change it. Whenever you feel yourself thinking a negative thought, delete it, erase it and create a new positive statement.

•  “They probably can’t afford it” - “What if, maybe, they can afford it?”
• “I don’t want to appear pushy” - “I want them to see I care and want to help”
• “They probably don’t need it” - “I know if they use this product they will see the result they want”
• “I don’t believe in my abilities to help them” - “Let’s just try it out to see if it works?”
• “I really hate selling” - “I love helping people solve problems”

For more examples of how you can turn negative self-talk, to statements that support you and help you succeed, read: How to change your attitude - Changing your attitude can change your life

3. Control your imagination

Imagine that you are a confident and successful retail seller, you are making product recommendations and the products are just walking off the shelf. This is how professional athletes train to win the race. Before they do it, they visualize themselves doing it, and winning. They see themselves coming first across the line. Only then are they ready to run and win the race. The only thing that sets them apart from their competitors is their mind. They train not only their body to improve their skill, but they also focus heavily on training their mind, to believe in themselves, to believe they can and they will do it.

4. Be Courageous

Sometimes we just need to trust ourselves that we can do it, and then go ahead and just do it. To silence that fear, make a decision you will do it right now, step up and make that move. When you are talking to your customer, and you know they will really benefit from using that product, start by saying “I know a way on how you could improve (insert condition). Would you be interested?” then go ahead and explain to them how your products will help and how the product works.

You can overcome your fear of selling. It takes practice, a positive attitude, an intense desire to help people achieve results and being in control of your imagination and self-talk. The skills and knowledge acquired while you are learning to become a successful seller are transferable to all facets of your life and will help you grow not only in your professional capacity but in your personal life as well. Overcoming your fears makes you more confident in yourself. Overcoming your fears can help you achieve the happiness you seek.

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So step outside of your comfort zone, because this is where the real magic happens.

How to change your attitude - Changing your attitude can change your life

Attitude is everything

Attitude is everything.

Attitude is a way of thinking, feeling, and behaving that reflects your state of mind and character.

I am sure you have met people where you thought they had a great attitude, and others where you thought they had a poor attitude. How did you make the observation if someone had a great attitude or not?

Attitude is reflected in the way people behave, based on their internal thoughts, feelings and self talk. We are in complete control of what we think, how we feel and what we say to ourselves, which means we are in total control of our behaviour and the attitude we project.  

Changing your attitude, means changing your behaviour, which means changing how we feel, what we think and what we say to ourselves. I believe what we say to ourselves is very powerful because it can make the biggest difference that will directly impact on our feelings, thoughts behaviour and our attitudes.

We can change what we say to ourselves very easily. Firstly, you need to be aware of what you are saying to yourself and know that what you say is either helping you or harming you. When you tell yourself “I can do this” it is clearly helping you. “I’m a loser” is definitely hurting you. 

Some things you say to yourself are not so obvious. Listen to your self talk and ask yourself, is this helping me or is this hurting me? Think about what you are saying to yourself and what will happen if you continue to do this, how will it impact on your behaviour, your attitude, your happiness and your life. Does the end result make you happy, excited, motivated and energetic? Or does it make you feel sad, deflated, depressed and tired?

There are some things we say to ourselves, which we should never say because it will lead to failure, misery and unhappiness. If you catch yourself saying something that does not serve you, it can be destructive for your self esteem, relationships, career and happiness. You need to immediately change your self-talk to positive and constructive language.

For some it may feel awkward or strange at first, but know this: your mind is listening. What you say to yourself your mind perceives as reality. By changing your internal dialogue, practicing positive affirmations and positive self talk, you can change your attitude, you can change your life. A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, feelings, beliefs, actions and outcomes. Attitude is the little thing that makes a big difference.  It is everything and it creates remarkable results.

Change you attitude, change your destiny.

Here are some examples of the negative self talk we tell ourselves. If you find yourself using destructive language, change it around to constructive language. Remember, your mind is listening. What you tell yourself is the reality you create.

DESTRUCTIVE LANGUAGE	CONSTRUCTIVE LANGUAGE
Others have tried and failed	I just need to do it differently
I’ve never done it before	Great opportunity to learn something new!
Life is so unfair	I control my life, I create my destiny
I give up	I am strong
It's too hard	I will try to make it work
I am so embarrassed I could die	I am courageous, I will get through this
Why do bad things always happen to me?	I will overcome challenges positively
I just don’t care anymore	I will help others and wont expect anything back
I feel so unhappy	I am grateful for the things I have
Nobody loves me	I am worthy
I don’t know how to do it	There’s always a way, I will find a way to do it
I hate my (cellulite, hair, teeth etc)	I am beautiful, I am unique
I don’t have enough money	I am prosperous
What will they think of me?	People love me for who I am
I wish I knew how to find happiness	When I wake up in the morning, I choose to be happy, it’s my choice
I hope I don’t get sick	I am healthy
I don’t have the education	I am intelligent, I am smart, I can do this
I don’t know if I can do it	I am good enough, I will give it my best shot
I’m so tired	Today will be a great day
What if I’m wrong?	What if I’m right?
I don’t have enough experience	I have the will to work hard and learn
I’m a nobody	I am unique and individual
I just don’t know what to do anymore	The answers are within me, I just need to listen to my heart
I have made so many mistakes	At least I have tried. I have learned how to not to do it, I’ll know better next time
My job is so boring	It’s up to me to make it more exciting & enjoyable, so what can I do that will make me happy?
This is not my job	It needs to be done, people are depending on me, I will do it
I feel cheated and disappointed	I am determined to do it better next time

What other things have you been saying to yourself that do not serve you? Write them down and work out what you should be saying to yourself that will help you achieve more. More happiness, more confidence, more love, more fun, a better life.

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Why aren't your customers coming back? How to build customer loyalty.

You have worked on your marketing and promotions and you have new customers coming in daily. But it's a never ending exercise and it can get exhausting. It's very expensive and a constant battle having to come up with innovative ways to bring in more new customers. While you focus so much on bringing in new customers in the hope to bring in more profits, have you ever wondered what would happen if all your new customers re-booked and came back? Do you have a 100% re-booking rate? If you do, congratulations! You will soon be unable to accept new customers unless you expand. 

If however you find your customers retention rate is poor, have you ever wondered why your customers don't come back? I'm not saying that getting new customers is not important, businesses need to grow, but the only way the business will grow is to retain customers and build loyalty. Beauty businesses who have a strong loyal client base are far more resilient that businesses that rely on walk-by traffic.  

Do you have customers on your database you haven't seen for some time? Did you know that if you could get back just 5% of your lost customers, you can potentially increase your profits by 25% - 125%? We all know that it is far easier to sell to an existing customer than to a new one. Studies show that repeat customers spend 33% more that new customers. This is because they already have a relationship with you, they know you and they trust you. 

So why is it that some of your customers are not coming back? Studies show 96% of customers who have not come back, leave because of poor or average customer service. Your customers are real people with real feelings. If they come to see you and leave feeling just like any other customer, or worse, can you blame them for not coming back? If you received average service, would you go back? 

With so much competition in the beauty industry, customers are selective and choose to go back when they feel like they are important to you. Of those that don't come back, 68% leave because they felt you or the people in your business didn't care enough. This is really mind blowing, the reality is that it's not the product or the beauty services your business delivers, but HOW you deliver it. It's all about the delivery, the attitude of your staff, their ability to connect with your customers to make them feel truly special. It's about creating an amazing experience that will make your customers want more. 

Truly exceptional service is a skill and a mindset. The mindset you and your staff have to be in is that of complete focus and attention on the client when they are with you, how to make them feel more comfortable, how to create an amazing and unique experience and how to find and deliver a solution to their problem. The skills that are required include superior interpersonal and communication skills, knowing how to really listen and ask great questions. Being in the service industry, demonstrating good etiquette, manners, grace and style are very important in delivering exceptional service. Do you feel your business can deliver this better than your competitors? If they are not completely satisfied, 9% of your customers will leave because they tried the competition and liked them better. 

Businesses that focus on the customer experience generate 60% higher profits than their competitors. 

Some of your customers will leave because they were not followed up. Do you follow up a few days after they had a treatment or purchased products to ensure they were completely satisfied? Do you book a follow up consultation to ensure they are happy with the results and are using the products correctly? If you truly care, and you want to show to your customers that results are important to you, follow up is a must. This is one of the best ways to engage your clients, demonstrate your expertise and build long-term loyalty. 

If you feel awkward contacting your clients, why? Does this mean you need more training in communication skills and build your confidence? If you say you don't have the time to follow up, why is that? Aren't these customers important enough to you? If you feel that if you follow up, the customer may not be completely satisfied so you don't want to open a can of worms? This tells me you don't have the confidence in your products and services, why is that? More importantly what can you do to fix it? 

Do you regularly contact your customers you haven't seen for a while? It's good practice to go thought your client base regularly to touch base with your clients and invite them back in for a treatment. Do you feel awkward contacting your client because you don't want to seem pushy? Why is that? If you don't contact your clients, they will fall off the radar because they felt you didn't care if they come back or not. Try and see it from their perspective. Do you feel like you are being pressured when you doctor sends you a reminder for a pep smear? Do you feel pressured when you dentist sends you a reminded for a dental check up or an optometrist ringing to remind you it's time to get your eyes checked? Why do you feel awkward to contact your clients to remind them it's time for their wax, a facial or a skin check? Don't you feel these services are important enough that deserve the same respect? 

We are in the business of making people feel great about themselves, about discovering their beautiful self. We have the potential to change peoples lives by helping them build confidence in themselves through looking and feeling better. The ripple effect of spreading this love and care for people can be a life changing experience. Successful beauty businesses are built on loyal, returning clients and word of mouth referrals. If you focus on how you can change your customers lives for the better, you will have their loyalty and they will spread the word.

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