Intuitive Sales – How to Sell Without Being Salesy

Whether you’re new to entrepreneurship or you’ve been at it for a number of years now, you know as well as I do that people can get weird about money.

You can get weird about money when it comes time to talk about it with a potential client, and the potential client gets weird about it when they’re trying to decide if buying your offer is worth the investment. 

This is normal though. It checks out that we can get so hung up on what something costs. Money is our lifeforce, it’s an energy exchange and it’s always tied to time. So in knowing that, we can realize that it’s never actually about the money. It’s about the perceived value of whatever it is you’re providing for someone.

I’ve been selling photography, videography and marketing strategies since 2019 – and the biggest lesson I’ve learned is that getting hung up on numbers is the final nail in the coffin. If you approach it wrong, you lose the sale – but there is a correct and morally pure way to approach sales.

The last thing that you want to do in your sales process is come across as a used car salesman. The sleezy, use all the tricks in the book kind of guy that’s been the butt end of a joke time and time again. We’ve all experienced these tactics in real life too. This is the kind of exchange where you know you’re being sold to, and it feels awkward as Hell. In an ideal sales exchange, the person you’re selling to doesn’t know they’re being sold to – because the first step in selling intuitively is to reframe your approach. You aren’t selling them something, you’re there to help. They have a problem, and you have the solution. 

In realizing that truth, the cost of the solution is inconsequential. It’s your job to understand what a potential customer needs from you, and to get them to say that what you offer is the clear solution.

The reason the used car salesman comes across as sleazy is because they have no idea what they’re actually selling. It’s a used car, maybe with 5 previous owners. They know it makes a weird sound that they can’t actually figure out – and that at best, it has maybe 3 solid years of life left in it. 

And if the person they’re selling it to has any concerns about what they’re getting – their response is usually something like “What do you expect? This is a used car. But anyways, anyways – this is a great car. You won’t find a car as good as this one.” 

The used car salesman uses these sales tactics because they have to. It’s just the nature of the beast. But why do we sometimes feel the need to do that in our own businesses? We do it because we don’t know everything there is to know about our offer. When we lack a full understanding of some aspect of what problem we solve, we overcompensate in our exaggerations. This is when we become salesy. 

In 2022 I had just developed a new strategy for my marketing sales process. It was my goal to bring on as many retainers as I could – regardless of the industry. I had recently done some headshots for an HVAC company, and the owner was a guy who grew up on the same street as me. 

He understood what I did, why it worked, he knew me personally – and he knew he wanted Ashcroft Media to work with his business. But, because this was a new venture for me, I completely botched the sale and he decided he didn’t want to work with me. 

Up until that point, I was taking photos and making videos for my clients, and was only just starting to understand the importance of using that content strategically – actually doing marketing for my clients. 

Because I felt uncomfortable about the number (it was about $5k per month) and misinformed about what I was actually offering, I built out an overly complicated pitch deck. It was 10 pages long, I insisted on throwing it up on the TV in their office, and the two guys I was presenting to could tell I was a little nervous. 

Case in point, I went through the whole presentation – and they said they would let me know… I thought I had it in the bag, I even brought a service agreement for them to sign after the presentation. I left, wondering where I had gone wrong. I pulled out all the tricks in the book! (Idiot). 

A few days later, I gave the owner a call and asked if he was ready to go. He politely said they were going to pass. I tried to get an answer out of him – I moved the numbers around and said I could make it cheaper. Nothing stuck. All he said was “it’s not about the money.” 

Now, years later – I understand exactly where I went wrong. I was selling him on something he didn’t need to be sold on. He was already sold. Insisting on proceeding with my overly complicated bullshit speech only made him feel misunderstood and a little on edge. A simple conversation would have closed the sale.

The key concept to apply to your own sales is to have patience. There are a number of clients – great clients – I’m now working with that took years to pull into my rolodex. A sales process should be long winded, informative and valuable. It should be rooted in patience and listening more than we speak. And this realization just takes time. We need to get to a point where we understand exactly what we’re offering, and how to present it in a way that feels enjoyable and enlightening. 

Now, there is a shortcut to this process. If selling intuitively hinges on you being able to just be yourself, because you know all that there is to know about your product or service – and that knowledge hinges on self awareness, you need to live and breathe what you do. 

If you’re expecting to develop a deep understanding of what you do just by doing it, it’s going to take years. There’s a physical feedback loop that can get really drawn out as you experiment and develop your offering. But there’s a very simple way to accelerate this process that has two very distinct benefits. It’s a process that both educates you on just how knowledgeable and professional you are, and acts as marketing material for your products or services. 

The sales process accelerator that I’m talking about is exactly what you’re reading right now. So every week, write a blog. It can be about anything and everything that has to do with your industry. It should be helpful, informative and easy to digest. Post the blogs on your website.

Then, take that same blog and make it into either a long form video to put on YouTube, a few short form videos to put on socials or both. Of course, the obvious benefit I touched on is that it attracts new potential customers into your ecosystem and educates/entertains current ones – but the silent benefit I’ve enjoyed over the past few years of doing this is the self awareness it brings to your goals in business. 

I owe the evolution of my sales process almost entirely to this routine. There’s something quite magical that happens when you read back something you wrote about at length, something that is directly tied to your business, your offer and your psyche. This positive effect is then amplified when you film yourself talking about the same subject. 

You’re then talking about the words you wrote out loud, and then you’re listening to yourself talk about the subject when you’re watching the videos back. Every entrepreneur should be doing this. And it’s easy. It’s like drinking water. Doing this for myself has quickly become one of my favourite things to do – and I would be years behind if I had never started. 

Now when I sell, I know exactly what I’m offering. I know who I am and I know how it benefits the people around me. I have been gifted with a 360 degree view of what my thoughts look like on paper and how I sound and carry myself when I’m talking about the benefits and features of my offers. I also have more patience and have become a much better listener, because writing well takes time and the ability to listen to your intuition.

Now beyond just expressing what you think about in the vein of your work, it also helps to remain a lifelong student. When you’re viewing the world through your profession, everything ties back to it. You can listen to conversations and add it to the knowledge bank you’re building. Every time you read a book, watch a movie or listen to a podcast – you’re looking for metaphors that tie directly back to your offer and your sales process.

Because my business model includes working closely with my clients every month, I use what I learn in the books I read and the pieces of media I absorb to help them as well. The wisdom and experience I’m building obviously helps with my individual mindset and approach to life, but I also offer it up to my clients on the regular – and we should all be doing the same. 

Selling intuitively, takes time to dial in – but it’s a lot easier if you’re able to express the problems you solve by incorporating writing and filming yourself into your everyday life.

After a few months of doing this, you’ll realize that the sales process isn’t even selling at all. You know your product or your service. You know your ideal customer, and you know yourself. The best products and services simply sell themselves. The leg work has already been done. 

When you’re selling intuitively, you’re just the middle man – getting your new customer from point a to point b, without forcing it – and without trying to convince them (or yourself) of anything at all.

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All The Best,

Jay Ashcroft