Selling Vs Offering - The Mindset Shift That Makes Marketing A Breeze

Practitioners often feel uncomfortable when it comes to marketing. A lot of the time, it comes down to a difference in perspective - which I refer to as selling vs offering.

These terms might seem interchangeable, but coming from one is much more comfortable for practitioners.

So let's explore the concept of selling vs offering and how to apply it to your marketing efforts.

Selling Vs Offering

'I don't want to feel pushy or icky!'

This is something I hear pretty much every day from health practitioners, healers and coaches. You know that your service is full of value for the right person. But we've all had a product or service shoved in our faces before - and it's not pleasant.

Unfortunately, this scares people off selling their services altogether. You end up hiding away from promoting your services completely, or you might market for a bit before hitting promo burnout.

I want to show you that there is a middle ground. You can put your services out there consistently and not be sleazy about it. You can call in your dream clients.

It all comes down to the intention behind it.

Marketing doesn't have to be a hard sell

The real problem with pushy styles of marketing is that they are going for a hard sell. Everyone has been on the fence about a purchase before and had a salesperson convince them it was the right decision. Most of the time, you end up feeling like you got conned into the sale.

Manipulating people into a service is not going to give you long-term sustainability in your business. And frankly, you don't want the people who need to be pushed that hard!

You want the clients who say 'shut up and take my money'. The clients that show up and put in the work. The clients that go off and rave about you and 5 of their friends end up booking in.

If you're working with any kind of business coach who suggests techniques that make you feel pushy, I'd think twice. Even if the method is sound, your discomfort will show, and you will lose sales because of that.

How to offer your services instead of selling them

So how do you find this mythical middle ground and offer your services to the right people in a way that feels authentic to you?

Here are some of my top tips to get you started.

• Every time you put out a piece of content such as a blog, ask yourself if that is giving value to that dream client of yours.
  Content is an essential part of marketing because you're showing people why they might want to work with you. If you give value that is relevant to them, they're more likely to want to work with you!

• Get really clear on who your services are for, and make that clear when you put the offer out.
  Say upfront if your package is for mums, or if your online course is for people with thyroid issues. Don't be wishy-washy and say it's for everyone!

• Even more importantly - get really clear on who the offer is NOT for, and make that clear.
  You don't want to sell your $5000 detox package to a single mum on benefits. Ok so that might be an extreme example, but the point remains! Tell people what they can expect to put in to get the most value from your offer.

• Write any copy or promos with your favourite client in mind.
  This might be one you've already worked with, or it might be one you invent.

Still not quite getting it? Let’s take a look at the brownie theory.

You're at a party, and you brought a tray of brownies to share as your contribution to that party. As you walk around the party and introduce yourself, you also offer each person one of the brownies.

But of course, there will be people that don't take a brownie. 

They might have allergies or intolerances.

Maybe they're on a Whole 30 reset, or they're doing a candida cleanse and can't touch sugar.

But there's also just a chance that they don't feel like a brownie right now, or they don't like brownies (weird, I know).

It's ok for you to let someone know why they might like a brownie. For example, maybe you've made them with gluten-free flour, so you can let people know it's gluten-free.

But it's also important for you to let them know who might not like a brownie. It might have walnuts in it, so you need to let them know that it's not for someone with a nut allergy.

These magical brownies are your services.

The people at the party are your broader audience. By making it clear to them who the brownies might suit and who they might not, you're making sure that only those who want a brownie take one!

That's because you are not pushing brownies onto people who don't want them - you're offering them to anyone who might enjoy a brownie. It really is that simple.

PS - there will always be one person who loves the brownie, and goes off to rave about how good it is. Those people are the best kind of client because they sell your services for you!

If you put yourself into the brownie mindset every time you go to write an offer or go on a discovery call with a potential client, you're setting yourself up to offer.

When you're offering, it feels good, because you want whatever is the best decision for the person in front of you! 

Are you stuck when it comes to selling vs offering your services?

I'm here to help. Book in a 1:1 marketing support session here, and we'll put together a strategy to make marketing feel good for you.