Trust = Sales: The Book Yourself Solid® Way

Michael Port

All sales start with a simple conversation and are executed when a need is met, and trust is assured. The Book Yourself Solid Sales Cycle helps us start the trust-building process and allows us to systematically, automatically, and authentically move the relationship forward.

If you’re good at making friends, you’ll be good at making sales.

Sales is often a confronting subject for many of us, but as I mentioned above, the sales conversation is just that – a conversation. If you can talk to people, you can make a sale for the betterment of the person that is buying your product or service. It’s not about manipulation or coercion.

To design a Sales Cycle for your business, you must first establish your 5 Part Foundation and your 6 Part Trust-Building Process. Combining these two exercises will give you a Sales Cycle that will attract more clients than you can handle, even if you hate marketing and selling.

The 5 Part Sales Cycle Foundation – The Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How.

It’s crucial to have a solid foundation before actually designing a sales cycle. To build a foundation that will give you rock-solid security, you must clearly and concisely identify the who, what, where, when, why, and how. This will ensure that the offers you’re making in your 6 Stage Sales Cycle Process are right on target.

Who is your target client/customer? Focus on one person (or organization) within your target market.
What are they looking for? You’ve got to understand what your ideal client or customer is looking for.
When do they look for you? What needs to happen in their personal life or work life for them to want the kind of service you offer?
Where do they look for you? Where does your ideal client go to search for a coach or consultant like you?
Why you? What is unique about you or the solutions you offer?
How do you want them to engage with you? What is it that you want a potential client to do when they find you?

The Book Yourself Solid 6 Part Trust-Building Process

In creating a sales cycle, you’ll design a step-by-step way to ease your potential clients from the first stage – getting them to your website – to the end-stage, your highest price-point product, program, or service, building trust every step of the way.

Part 1 – Introduction: The idea during stage 1 is to introduce yourself to your target market and create awareness for the services, products, and programs you offer. Guide them to the best place to interact with you online, like your website.
Part 2 – Give/Engage: Now you’ve got your prospective client to your website, it’s time to offer solutions, opportunities, and relevant information in exchange for their email address (or another way of continuing the conversation with their permission.)
Part 3 – Keep on giving: Keep giving low-barrier to entry offers of value-rich content, opportunities, experiences, etc. Your goal is to build trust and deepen the relationship through conversation.
Part 4 – Evaluate the level of trust: If a prospect responds to your offer in Stage 3, assess, draft an email or create a verbal offer based on the most appropriate products, programs, and services.
Part 5 – Overdeliver: If the prospect accepts the offer and becomes a client or customer, be sure to thank them, celebrate, and then overdeliver. Surprise them with value.
Part 6 – Keep in touch: If the prospect does not engage and become a client or customer, still go above and beyond to offer something of unexpected value. Then, keep in touch, keep in touch, and keep in touch some more. Always offering value and deepening the bond of trust between them and you. The result? When they NEED your services, you will be top of mind.

There are many ways to build trust with your potential clients and ease them toward purchasing your higher price point offerings. Use your imagination and creativity to tailor your sales cycle to what works best, feels most natural, and resonates most with you. This can be done in a 3-stage process or a 15-stage process. It’s really up to you, but I’ve found through experience and research that a 6-stage cycle at a minimum is most effective.

The key is to remember that all of your marketing is about getting your message out to those who most need, and will most greatly benefit from, your services, products, and programs. It’s about connecting with your potential clients to develop and deepen genuine relationships based on trust.

Understanding and incorporating this philosophy into your marketing makes the sales process easy, relaxed, and wildly successful.