The reason why you’re not selling things

Let’s have a little heart-to-heart, shall we?

Running a small business is not an easy job. Suddenly you have to do all the things that as an employee others in your team did. Now that you’re working for yourself, it’s all on you.

You’re in charge of everything.

Your product or service to start with. But you also have to create designs and photos to sell your thing. And you have to market it. Write emails. Create an online strategy. Keep your books organised and submit your taxes. Create content on all the channels. Make connections with potential clients.

The list is endless.

And most importantly we have to sell. Ugh!

That’s the thing that seems the hardest. I know it is for me – I don’t even like the word sales.

But actually, when you think about it, selling is just sharing what you can do for someone else. It’s helping others. And not sharing your product or knowledge or skill is selfish – because others may need exactly what you can offer. If you don’t tell them, they won’t get the help they might need.

This is one of my mantras recently because selling has a negative connotation for me – while it should have the exact opposite really. It’s about reframing how we feel about selling.

So, what can we do to make selling easier?

We need to be visible. But not everywhere – just try and be where your target audience would look for you. That could be a specific social media channel like TikTok, Instagram or LinkedIn. It could be on YouTube. And it should probably be on Google – which means you might want to have a great web presence you have control over (that would be a website rather than an IG account).

You can’t possibly do everything with the same amount of impact if you work on your own. So be smart and spend your time wisely on the channels that bring your work.

So once you know where to put your energy and where you need to be seen, you can focus on the message you need people to hear.

What does being visible as a small business mean?

Good question! It means YOU need to show up. Ideally not just with your products but also with your face and even your voice if you can.

So, use photos and videos of you showing what you do and how you do it. Yes, I said videos.

People are used to seeing videos online and in a world where everything happens online, personal connections can get lost easily. Using a video with your face and your voice talking about something gives us an opportunity to better relate to you or understand how we could work with you.

You can cheat a lot better on photos and in copy which will make it easy to create an online persona that has nothing in common with you. Once someone works with you though or meets you in person and realises that online-you is not the same as offline-you, you can lose trust. That can be detrimental.

So, don’t try to be someone you’re not – and the easiest way is by showing up as authentically (I know, buzzword!) as you can.

Being visible means you share a little more than just your business – people are nosey, they want to look behind the scenes. You can do that without sharing all your personal details. Do it in a way that feels comfortable and right.

Let’s talk about what that would look in reality:

If you are a business coach but do CrossFit for fun – you could share photos or videos of you doing that. Speaking from experience, finding other crossfitters is a huge draw (#notacult).

If part of your life is being a mum, don’t hide it. So many people connect better with other parents because you’ll have the struggle of family and work life in common.

And if you have a dog? Definitely share that. People love dogs. And cats. Don’t necessarily make them the centre of your online business world but it won’t harm to share that bit of your life with your audience.

Being honest about who you are helps people build a connection and trust. And that’s when they are willing to spend their money on you over your competitor.

How can Personal Branding Photos help you sell?

When you invest in professional photos for your business, make sure you know what they need to do for you.

And that’s not: Make the sale. Because photos alone can’t do that.

What they can do though is help you tell better stories about your work, the impact you can have and the way your offer changes people’s lives. They support your messages and show your future clients what it would be like to work with you. And they can show how you do “your thing”.

Photos can make you more relatable and help people see what they have in common with you. Mutual values are a big driver for most people I know. Personally, I wouldn’t work with someone who does things that go against my values. But I can’t tell whether we’d be a good fit if I don’t know their values.

Photos have the wonderful ability to visualise what you’re trying to explain. People don’t read marketing messages – but they look at photos and watch videos. And if you can grab their attention, they will read what you have to say too.

Photos and words work beautifully together as a team. But they have to be used in a way that connects with your ideal client.

So if you have a business and you don’t have success selling, it’s probably because you’re not showing up enough and sharing the right things. And mostly that’s down to mindset.

Change the way you think about selling. Don’t be afraid to show up imperfectly (nobody’s perfect). Know where to find your audience and put yourself in front of them.

And most importantly, show up as if everyone is hanging on to every word you say – even if you only have 2 website visitors a month or 30 social followers. Keep showing up, keep sharing useful content and talk about what someone will gain from working with you – rather than what you offer.

Marketing your small business is playing the long game. You won’t see success instantly but if you stick with it, it will happen.

By the way, if you want to learn more about this topic, I can recommend a fantastic book called “More Sales Please” by Sara Dalrymple.