Ep 52. Selling for Introverts: How to build trust without the convincing energy

If the idea of selling makes you want to hide under a blanket, I want to offer you a different way of thinking about it today, because I really believe that introverts have a natural advantage when it comes to selling. You’re just not using it in the right way…yet.

If you’re new here, hello, and a very warm welcome to Quiet Confidence with myself, Anita Popat. I’m a marketing strategist for introverts, and today we’re gonna talk about selling.

I know I don’t need to say this, but we’re business owners, right? We have to sell. There’s no getting around it, but I think a lot of introverts have a really unhelpful idea of what selling actually is.

Some people have that really icky car salesman point of view of sales meaning that you have to convince people, persuade them, or talk someone into something that they’re not sure about.

Obviously when you frame selling like that, it is gonna feel icky, but that’s not what good selling actually looks like.

The way I like to think about it (this has really changed how sales feels for me) is that selling is just giving people the opportunity to work with you.

You’re just letting someone know you’ve got something that’s really gonna help and to me, that serving starts way before someone’s even paid you a penny. So this podcast is a form of serving my audience as well.

When you shift into that mindset, the whole thing feels different, right?

You’re not pushing, you’re offering, and there’s a big difference in that energy. Can you feel it?

[00:01:14] To be good at selling in that quiet, genuine, non-pushy way, you need to know who you’re talking to.

[00:01:19] Yes, I’ve gone there again because it’s really important! Once you’ve got a really clear picture of your sweet spot client, when you know who she is, what she’s dealing with, where she wants to get to, selling will just start to feel like a conversation with someone that you really understand.

Without the clarity in knowing who you’re speaking to, you’re basically gonna try to sell to everyone and hoping that something sticks, which is exhausting on both parts, because your audience are gonna be like, “Who the hell is she talking to? Is she talking to me? What’s she on about today?” And you’re gonna feel exhausted just throwing spaghetti at the wall and being like, “Why the hell is nothing working?” So we wanna be a bit more strategic, right?

Now here’s where it gets interesting, because most selling advice is about talking. It’s about having the right words, the perfect script, knowing how to handle objections, which is all well and good, but the best selling actually starts with listening, like really listening.

And that is something that introverts do instinctively. Think about how you are in a client conversation. You’re not waiting for them to finish, so you can say your bit. I bet you’re genuinely taking in what they’re saying, and then you’re picking up on the things that they almost said.

We notice those hesitations, the things that are lying underneath the thing that they want to say, but they’re not quite saying. So you’re naturally going seven layers deep when everyone else is still on the surface. This kind of depth of understanding is gold in selling, because when someone feels truly heard, when they feel like you genuinely get them on a soul level, you’re building trust, right? And trust is leads someone to working with you.

[00:02:44] So you know who you’re talking to, you’re listening. And then the third piece, and this is where your content comes in, is reflecting it back.

So you’re not just parroting their words back at them, you’re taking what you’ve heard, what you understand about their world, and showing them how you see it.

But within that you’ve got your perspective, your take on things, and your voice woven through it. And this is what’s gonna make content feel like it was written specifically for someone.

Like when they read it and think, “Oh my God, how did she know that?” That’s not magic, right? That’s someone who’s done the work to really understand your audience, and you’re now holding up a mirror to with your own unique lens on it.

When you hold up enough of those mirror moments, it makes people feel something, and they’re naturally gonna get in touch because they’re gonna be like, “This person really, really understands me and my world.

[00:03:25] So what does creating mirror moments actually look like? Because I think this is where some people get a bit stuck.

The first and most easiest way to do this is to use their words, not yours. The language that your clients are using to describe their problem is always gonna be more powerful than the language you use in your industry.

The second thing to do is to take the patterns and moments that you keep seeing with clients and turn them into content. Whether it’s a feeling that keeps coming up across different conversations or a specific breakthrough on a call or a question or a mindset thing that keeps coming up, create a post about it.

You don’t have to mention any names, but if your clients are experiencing it and you wanna attract more people like them, then it’s likely there’s more people in your audience that are feeling the same way too. 

And also, it gives those people a sense of the kind of things that you might work on if they become a client.

The third thing is to own your experience because your clients are probably a version of you a few years ago, and sometimes the most powerful thing is sharing your own version of the struggle, like the thing you went through that mirrors exactly where they are right now because it shows that you’ve walked the path that they’re on, and that builds a different kind of trust too.

Another thing you can do is say something that nobody in your industry is saying. So as introverts, we notice things that others miss, or they might not bother saying it because they’re too busy talking.

That gap between what’s being said about your space online and what you really think, that’s content too, because that’s your perspective, and it’s often the most magnetic thing you can share, because it’s probably the thing that your sweet spot client is thinking, but they haven’t seen anyone say it out loud yet.

So obviously, if you do say it out loud, then that’s another tick in the, “Yep, I trust this person,” box

They’re just a few examples, but can you see that none of this is convincing anyone of doing anything?

You’re just showing people that you understand their world, and you’ve got something to say about it. And when someone feels seen and heard consistently over time, they’re naturally gonna move closer to working with you.

None of this feels like selling. I mean, it doesn’t to me anyway. I’m just sharing information, and that’s exactly the point, every piece of content you create is part of that sales journey. Every time they see something from you, that’s another coin in the trust bank.

When you keep showing up like that, there’s no convincing energy or talking someone into something they’re not sure about.

That’s just showing up consistently and letting people get to know you, your thinking, and your work and you just keep doing that, and along the way, the right ones are gonna think, “Okay, I’m ready. I wanna work with her.”

I guess I wanna end by saying that content is selling.

Luckily for us, we can build that slow, steady, trust-building version of content, and when the time comes, you don’t need a massive sales event. The final thing that closes the sale could be as simple as a DM. It could be sending someone a link to your sales page or just a quick call to make sure you’re a good fit.

So again, there’s no convincing energy required because your content has already done that for you.

This is definitely how I love to sell, and how I teach to sell within Silent Storm aswell.

So if something has felt icky or uncomfortable, come back to these three things. Get really clear on who you’re talking to. Listen, like really listen to what they’re going through, and then reflect back with your own voice and perspective woven through it.

That’s it. You’re selling.

Like I mentioned before, if you wanna go deeper on any of this work, so getting clear on your sweet spot client, finding your voice, building the kind of content that does the selling before you’ve even had the conversation, that’s exactly what we work on inside Silent Storm. All the information you need is here.

Keep building your quiet confidence so you can make that loud impact, and I shall see you next time. Speak soon