Sell To People Who Are Ready to Buy

Second in a series of TK

After last week’s post — What if Your Ideal Client Wants What You Are Selling? I decided to do a series of posts on SALES. I’m not sure how many there will be which is why there is a TK there (it stands for “to come.”) I’ll fill it in as I go. There is so much to say on this topic. The last series I did was on PRICING. You can find those posts in the navigation tab at the top of the newsletter.

I just bought tickets to see the show STOMP, which is coming to town for one night next week. I saw an ad somewhere — Facebook, I think — popped over to the theater website, and within about 2.3 seconds, made the decision to buy.

Why so little time to discern?

• I saw the percussion + dance performance many years ago and remember being amazed.

• I thought it would be something my husband might love.

• We try to support the arts in our town, because we believe that books and music and painting and theater and dance are what make a community vibrant and alive.

• We find it is a wonderful way to connect socially with our friends — we’ll get extra tickets and invite people. It forces us to reach out.

So I snatched up four tickets. (It was a good thing; the show is now sold out.)

My behavior reminded me of a maxim I have often heard about sales: sell to people who are ready to buy.

In other words, design your website, your messaging, your packages, your pricing, and your process for someone who is ready to spend that money somewhere. The only question in their mind is, Should it be with you?

What this mindset does is shift you away from explaining what you do, or defending what you do, or trying to convince or cajole, all of which don’t feel good.

As a book coach (and a writer, for that matter) you have something to offer that can solve a problem or a pain point for someone. Your job is to offer it and convey who it’s for and how it will serve them and their job is to decide whether or not that offer is for them.

The sales experts say that of the people considering your offer, only about 1% to 5% are ready to buy at any given moment. The other 95% are looking around. They are kicking the tires. They might never be ready to buy (from you or anyone else) or they might be ready in a few weeks or months, or maybe even next year.

Your responsibility when selling is to speak to that 1% to 5%.

In your marketing activities — lead magnets, free events, etc. — you can speak to the 95% but make sure that when you are selling what you offer, you are speaking to the people ready to buy.