For entrepreneurs who sell services for $30 – $100 an hour, and entrepreneurs who sell individual items that cost under $30
Many of us have been trained to sell services and products in this way, where our clients purchase one item or appointment at a time. That’s how I started out. When I was 11 years old, I crafted jewelry and sold it at summertime festivals. But….it took a lot of time to make the jewelry, set up the booth, and to then sell each individual piece. When I started working in the holistic health field in 2009, many of the people in my industry sold one-time appointments, with the hope (but no guarantee) that their client would return. I gave that a try too.
These days, I’m enamored with a different way of selling – a process where we likely only have to make ONE sale a month, and the income from that ONE sale lets us live a very comfortable life.
Let
’s use the example of a cafe, which sells coffee, hot tea, and iced lemonade for the hot summer months. Every single cup of coffee sold is a mini sale, where the barista must engage with a customer, educate them about what’s for sale, and answer questions. Then, hopefully, the customer will react favorably, and purchase something, and then come back for more on another day. A purchase at most cafes ranges from about $3 to $30, depending on if you have guests visiting, or if you want to sip on a fancy blended drink for the afternoon.
But what if that barista or café owner could have just ONE conversation, with one person, that leads to $10,000+ worth of drinks being sold?!
It takes a lot less time to have that one conversation – much quicker than the thousands of mini sales conversations.
This kind of approach (where you focus on connecting to larger contracts) works for all kinds of industries – health and wellness, photography, designers, cleaning services, food providers, floral shops, and many others.
Now, of course there is a place for selling one-off items, like the photographer who sells one photo shoot, or a print at a local fair. Or the health practitioner who hosts a one-time workshop, where they meet several new potential patients who end up sticking around with them for years.
But still…..it’s very intriguing to look at how your business can create an offering for more than $10,000, and how you can sell it through one or two conversations.
It’s a mind shift. You’ll have to think a bit differently, and you also need to modify the structure that you use to deliver your products or services. If you’d like to learn more, I’m going to be teaching about this at my next Making Money Feels Like Bliss workshop for entrepreneurs.
**If you have friends who might find this post and the café example helpful, please share it with them!
© 2016 Ava Waits
Ava Waits is an inspirational speaker, business mentor, sales trainer, and author of the forthcoming book, A Woman‘sTreasure: Grow A Business Where Making Money Feels Like Bliss. She believes that making money should feel like bliss, and through her work, she provides innovative sales and marketing guidance to entrepreneurs and companies worldwide.
As a speaker, Ava has been interviewed on television and radio, and has been invited around the country to inspire and train audiences at business events, women’s organizations, and financial companies. She has presented at Rick Steves Europe, United Way, the Women’s Day of Empowerment, Mother Earth News, the National Association of Professional Mortgage Women, and many others.
Find out more about Ava at www.AvaWaits.com.
