“Here’s some money. Pour melting wax on my face and then rip it off quickly.”
I voluntarily make that sacrifice regularly, so today I want to tell you a story about how to sell something that requires sacrifice. Warning, this is probably a little bit too much information, TMI, but I think you’ll find this story super helpful.
So this story happened not this past weekend, but the weekend before, and I was getting ready to go to Utah for a couple of speaking events, which means, my friends, I had to get my eyebrows and my mustache waxed, which is one of my least favorite things to do. Now you’re thinking, “What?” Obviously the eyebrows are always on point, and I think that you’re underestimating how much time it takes to look this effortless on a daily basis.
So let me tell you about what went down when I went to get my mustache waxed and my eyebrows waxed. So I go in there and it’s, “Hey, good to see you.” I lay down. We do the eyebrows. We do the mustache per usual. Then I get a, “Well, what about this?” Basically my beard. Okay, no thank you. So on and so forth. Then she says the magic question, “Would you like me to get rid of some of these blackheads?”
Now I’ve been going to this place for almost five years. This is the first time anyone has asked me to do that.
Of course, my first look was horror on my face. Then she came in with, “It’s okay. You’re going to like the way it looks. You’re going to be really happy. You’ll be glad you did it. It’s going to be fine. It’ll only hurt for a couple minutes.”
Understand, I normally don’t want to go spend a lot of money on a facial when I can get a relaxing massage instead. Hopefully you guys are with me on this.
So then I say, “Okay.”
Now, I’m going to breakdown how all this went down. First, “Ow! Ow! Ow!” But then I felt better, and then it was over. Then I went for my speaking events and what were the results? Everybody was like, “Hey, you look great.” Now, could it be the fact that I’ve lost 30 pounds in the past year? Maybe. Even though that doesn’t make sense since most people who were complimenting me have seen me on video recently. Or could it be the new network marketing product I’ve been using to improve my mental clarity? Maybe. Or could it be that this lady got rid of some blackheads? I think that it actually could be the third thing.
So I want to break down really quickly what were the steps that she took to first convince me that I should get my blackheads removed, despite the fact that it was going to be painful, why I was so grateful that she did, how that ended up impacting me and what does this mean for you.
Number One: Offer. Now, she offered a few different things. She offered to wax all of this (different parts of my face). She offered a couple of different things, but she wasn’t freaked out. She wasn’t scared, she was super confident.
So step one, offer.
Number Two: Benefit statements. She gave me a really simple one: You will look better. She didn’t go into the science behind blackheads. She didn’t go into this long explanation. She just was like, “If we remove the blackheads, it’ll look better, and it’ll only be this much.” Now, obviously I had some reservations, but then she gave me the reassurance. It’s going to be worth it.
Number Three: Reassurance. It’ll be worth it. She had just the right amount of empathy. Here’s what I mean, I don’t know how many of you guys get your mustache waxed, but I want you to think about how crazy this is: Women go in and we pay somebody money to pour hot, melted wax on our face, and then rip it off. It takes just the right amount of empathy to get through this.
So it wasn’t so much empathy that she thought, “Well, I can’t do this to this person,” but it was just enough where I knew she understood that it hurt, but she was going to do it anyway and it was going to be okay. Then she gave me a quick win by showing me in the mirror and saying, “Hey, look! Look how much better you look! What do you think? Do you like it?” I did, and I was happy.
So I was super happy with this result. It only cost me a few dollars. It was painful, but that’s okay because here I am on Facebook Live talking about how this lady waxed my face and got rid of my blackheads. I think there’s a great lesson here.
Here is the point: Some people get really worked up about the concept of being in sales or being a salesperson. Do you think at any moment in time this person thought, “I’m going to sell her a blackhead removal. Oh man, she’s walking in. I’m going to sell her a blackhead removal.”
No, she thought, “Okay. This person’s going to come in. They want to look better. I’m going to do whatever I can to make this person feel more confident about going out into the world.”
I just think it’s so crazy that we pay for this, right? Every other week, sometimes every three weeks, or four weeks when it’s not going that well, I walk into this place and I say, “Here’s some money. Pour melting wax on my face and then rip it off quickly.” Then I say, “Thank you.” Then I tip them. We’re sitting here feeling bad about the sales profession. To me, that is kind of crazy.
So I’m just going to encourage you to stop feeling bad…just help people. Ask your customers about themselves, learn about them. Keep in mind that I wouldn’t have walked in there and said, “I want this service.” She just noticed a need and she said, “Do you want to look better? Here’s what we can do. It’s going to hurt, but it’s going to be worth it.”
With our products, or even for myself with our coaching programs, do we have the confidence in our products or in our coaching programs like this lady that was just sure you’re going to feel better.
When I talk to someone about coaching, do I have the guts to say, “This is going to be painful. You’re going to learn some things. You might feel bad about some of the things you did in the past when we point out some of the mistakes and it might be painful. If you enter into one of our coaching programs, you’re going to have to do some hard work. But it’s going to be worth it and your business is going to look better.”
Can we just keep it that simple?
If you have a health and wellness product, could you just say, “If you get this, yeah, it’s going to cost you money and maybe it’s a little stinky, but you’re going to feel better.” We give people that reassurance.
We need to stop feeling bad for helping people, for helping them to solve their problems. We have to tell them they won’t regret it, that the sacrifice is worth it, and we have to make sure that we have enough confidence in our product line.
If we don’t have the confidence in our product line to say something like, “Yeah, here are some of the drawbacks to it, but it’s going to be worth it. You’re going to feel better, and you’re going to like the result,” then maybe we need to pick another product.
So I just want to leave you with that today. I hope you guys all have a great rest of your day.
Now, if you are feeling like you are not confident to be able to do this and be a good human and you have not yet taken Direct Sales Foundation with group coaching, you should register because then your business will feel better and you won’t regret it. Click the button below to register. I promise.
So have a great day everyone. I’m going to keep working on all my content for this week, and I’ll talk to you soon.