3 Common Mistakes Selling Your Services Online (And How To Fix Them)

Finding your first client online, whether you’re a newbie coach or consultant or someone who has honed their skills and expertise over the years, can be quite a challenge.

But don’t worry because I am here to help you!

In this article, I will discuss the three most common mistakes that might be holding you back. And will share some ideas on how to avoid them

But before we dive into that topic, let me share with you the story of how I miserably failed at selling because I was making these three mistakes on my first attempt.

Unveiling the Mistakes: Why My Clothing Store Portal Failed?

I was still in high school when this happened.

I noticed that all my girl classmates were very interested in buying new fashions all the time but they were on a budget. So they were constantly looking and waiting for the next fashion sale in the city.

So an idea came to me to create a website that would list all the fashion sales of the clothing stores in my city. I believed that it would gain a lot of attention, and lots of traffic. I could monetize that website, eventually.

And here was my plan:

1. Dress up nice with a shirt, pants, and good shoes, and go downtown in my city.
2. Contact all the clothing stores in the main district in my city and ask them to always inform me of the new upcoming sales.
3. Then I can post the details of the sale on my portal.

One afternoon, I went to one of the main streets where there are a lot of clothing shops in the old town district. I started at the top of the street and walked down the entire street.

I went into every single clothing store. And in each store, I would ask for the manager or someone responsible for the store.

I would pitch them the idea and ask them if they were interested in giving me updates whenever they have a sale. So I can publish that on my website.

It took me the entire afternoon until evening. There were so many clothing stores there, and I went into every single one of them.

But as you can imagine, my success rate was very low because most of the people in the shops were not interested in giving me details or didn’t quite understand who I was or what I was doing.

At the end of the day, I only had two shops that agreed to send me updates.

And even though I thought it was a great idea, the fact that none of these shops wanted to collaborate with me made me believe that the idea was bad. And I just concluded that that’s not a viable business strategy or business idea. That’s why I gave up on it.

Looking back at it today, I can see quite clearly how many mistakes I made in the process of that.

Three Common Mistakes In Selling Your Services

1st Mistake: Talking to the Wrong People

This is the first and biggest mistake I made, I talked to the wrong people.

Going back to my story, I was talking to the shop assistant or the manager but none of these people are in charge of the clothing store’s marketing.

I thought that because the shop assistant said no that means the store or the company wasn’t interested when in fact I was just talking to the wrong person.

This is a very common problem for coaches and consultants. When you don’t realize that you’re talking to the wrong person, you might think that what you’re offering isn’t good enough or that the market doesn’t want what you have to offer.

Because if you’re talking to the wrong person then you will always get a negative reaction.

What went wrong? I talked to the wrong people.

What I should have done? Know my target audience and make sure that I am talking to the right people.

2nd Mistake: Do not hard sell

Yes, I did hard selling in the past.

What I mean, is when I went into every single one of these boutiques and clothing stores, I would try to pitch them the idea of my website from the get-go.

As a coach or consultant that will be the equivalent of talking to someone and in the first couple of phrases you say:

• Hire me as your coach,
• Hire me as your consultant,
• Or buy my services

That is much too aggressive and too direct. And most people will feel overwhelmed or even put off by that directness. So the success rate is very low as a consequence of that.

People hate to be sold to and they much prefer to buy instead of being sold to.

And this is about context.

Instead of me talking so much and hard selling them my idea, I should have asked questions first.

So as a coach, consultant, or even a course creator, if you are having a conversation with someone and you get that feeling where you’re so excited to tell them about your service, hold back a little. Do not hard sell your service. Because most of the time, that’s going to be too much even if you just mean well.

Try to consider the following ideas:

1. Ask them questions
2. Get to the bottom of their needs, dreams, and wants
3. Then allow them to buy from you instead of them feeling like they’re being sold to or pitched to

Remember:

Even if you mean well or if you’re very passionate about your service and your product, don’t make other people uncomfortable by hard selling them.

What went wrong? I did hard selling.

What I should have done? Learn to ask questions instead of pitching them directly.

3rd Mistake: Asking too much way too soon

Asking too much way too soon is very heavily related to mistake number two which is the hard selling.

It is when you ask the other person for too big of a yes too early.

And what do I mean by that?

Most people who start with sales have this secret dream or vision that they’re going to be so good at speaking. In the first conversation, they can sell them a high-ticket service for thousands of dollars. Because they are so seductive and so persuasive in their presentation.

I can’t speak for all the salespeople in the world, but from my experience, that is not how it works.

The best salespeople don’t do magic, persuasive and manipulative talk.

The best salespeople, know which yes to ask for next. They know what they need to offer next.

So the other person is very likely to say yes, and it doesn’t feel like too big of a jump for them.

Going back to my story, when I went into these clothing stores and boutiques and asked them right away to sign up for my project and send me all their updates, basically I asked them from not knowing me at all to becoming my business partner in the same day, within just a few minutes after meeting me.

Instead, I should have asked them for a much smaller commitment that they would feel more comfortable with. I should have prepared better and asked myself, what is the next step I can offer them so that I can keep the conversation going?

For example, I could have asked for an email address where I could send them:

• A presentation
• A PDF
• A document

That outlines the design of my portal and how it works. And all the types of information that would be very interesting to them, but also a much smaller commitment on their end.

So whenever you’re talking to a potential client, you have to be aware of how developed your relationship with that person is. If it’s very early in the relationship, then you may want to figure out what the next step for them is that they can comfortably commit to, and offer them that.

Consider the following suggestions:

• Send them a PDF report
• An ebook that you wrote
• Ask them to go over it
• Schedule a call with them to discuss their questions
• Try offering a free consultation discovery call

There are so many ways to continue the conversation at an adequate level.

Again, this depends on the particular situation that you are in.

Most of the time as a coach or consultant, if you’re already talking to someone on the phone, they must be very interested in what it is that you have to offer anyway. So you don’t want to miss out on a sale when you’re in that situation.

But far too often I see the opposite, where someone posts something on social media and gets a comment from someone. Then straight away they reply to the comment and say:

• Hey, schedule a call with me
• Or here’s the link to my calendar

That is much too big of a step.

Instead, try the steps below:

1. Ask yourself what is the next thing that they can comfortably say yes to.
2. And that will continue the conversation.
3. Ultimately guide them to having a phone call with you.

Make sure you have small incremental steps that guide your prospective client from getting to know you, to having the phone call with you, and to becoming your client.

What went wrong? I asked right away for too big of a yes from the other person.

What I should have done? I should have asked them for a much smaller commitment.

If you learn from my story here and avoid these three common mistakes, I promise you that selling will become much easier. You’ll have more sales conversations and sign up more clients.

Also, if you want to sell high-ticket services, products, and offers, make sure to read this blog as well. It’s a written version of the conversation I had with Lenny Goodman who has 42 years of experience working as a business consultant and he shared with me his tips and secrets to selling high-ticket products, services, and offers.

So, that is the whole story of how I miserably failed at selling because I was making these three mistakes, and some solutions to resolve those issues.

And now let me ask you, how was your experience when you start selling for the first time? Care to share any interesting lessons that changed your life at some point? I would love to read them below.

And don’t forget to subscribe on my YouTube channel, @creategrowprofit.