If you are anything like the hundreds of thousands of women I hear screaming about sales in the Facebook groups, then you have probably built up your fair share of shame-filled stories about what it means to sell.
So no you aren’t alone but yes…there is something you need to do about it because hear me when I say this:
The more stressful of a story you write for yourself about selling, the more drama you will create in every area of your life and business.
And P.S. if you’re a mother with a drama-filled sales cycle, I promise you’re unconsciously modeling destructive beliefs and behaviors about money that will set your children up for the same struggles in life.
- According to a survey conducted by the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), 68% of women business owners reported feeling uncomfortable with the sales process, which often leads to self-doubt and hesitancy when promoting their services. (Source: NAWBO)
- A study by McKinsey & Company found that women, on average, receive only 77 cents for every dollar earned by men, highlighting the persistent gender pay gap that can further exacerbate feelings of inadequacy and frustration in the sales arena. (Source: McKinsey & Company)
- Research published in the Harvard Business Review revealed that 85% of women face challenges in negotiating their worth and value during sales interactions, resulting in missed opportunities for career advancement and business growth. (Source: Harvard Business Review)
- The Women in Sales and Marketing Report by LinkedIn indicated that 71% of women in sales have experienced gender bias or discrimination during their careers, leading to increased stress and emotional toll on their overall well-being. (Source: LinkedIn)
- A shocking study by the American Psychological Association demonstrated that the stress levels experienced by women in sales are 20% higher than the average stress levels of women in other professions, indicating the unique pressures and challenges they face. (Source: American Psychological Association)
These statistics highlight the harsh realities and obstacles that women service providers encounter when it comes to sales. It’s evident that addressing these issues is crucial for personal and professional growth. By acknowledging the patriarchal conditioning and societal influences at play, you can focus on finding viable solutions for positive change and empowerment.
Obviously, most of this stems from the patriarchal conditioning and indoctrination that happens to most children in the United States but there is no benefit in pointing blame and drawing our awareness to this problem without also offering a viable solution for change.
That’s our (yours and my) collective mission for the next few minutes as we, together, examine how we, as women and a society as a whole bought into these toxic stories about sales and how we can rewrite them for unbridled confidence, independence, and safety.
At The Root Of The Problem
I do my best not to waste our time looking too hard at or attempting to solve the symptoms of problems rather than the actual root cause – a toxic habit that has been normalized for too long.
The symptoms of the drama-filled sales cycle are the adrenaline-filled ebbs and flows of the feast or faminne rollercoaster that most freelancers feel strapped to (against their will) right now. But the root cause is the collective behavioral patterning that is unconsciously causing them to be their own worst enemy in a variety of ways.
In a sense, many women are operating almost like robots or zombies functioning only to carry out the subconscious stories they’ve written over a lifetime about money, sales, and relationships.
So how do we wake up and overcome the hidden ways we are self-sabotaging our deepest dreams and desires?
We activate our archetype.
Archetype Activation
I don’t believe in one-size-fits all advice which creates false narratives and expectations that feed the shame cycles women are already enduring on a daily basis.
Therefore, when I was developing my methods I went in search of a scientific and spiritually-backed tool or approach to coaching creative women that would allow me to speak to their individual needs and desires at scale. What I found was the whimsical world of Jungian Psychology, reconnecting to the inner Wild Woman, and the 4 Divine Feminine Archetypes (behavioral patterns) that drive all women.
When I began to apply and test these methods of scaling a creative based business leveraging each woman’s natural behavioral patterns to her advantage while releasing her from the guilt and shame cycles that were keeping her stuck, I realized I had struck lightning in a bottle.
From then on, I decided that all of my content would be considerate of the different ways each Wild Woman archetype (The Sage Dreamer, The Rebel Maiden, The Queen Mother, The Wild Enchantress) interacts with different types of advice and do my best to consider all of their needs. By the way, if you’re curious now you can discover your archetype and begin activating it by taking this quick and whimsical quiz.
Once your archetype is activated, the seemingly “silly woo” activities that Almond Moms flex performatively on their socials, will suddenly feel different. For the first time, you won’t be going through the motions anymore, you will be experiencing the compounding results of them actually working for you. Now self-care goes from this pressure-inducing thing you are supposed to do to something you prioritize naturally because you can feel the ripple effects everywhere you turn and that reward system is powerful.
What else changes in archetype activation?
Mindset shifts – Everyone talks about mindset shifts but the ones that really matter are the ones that hold you back based on your unique psychology and interactions with the world. If they don’t reflect your current experience of the world they won’t resonate enough to take hold.
Affirmations – Your archetype activation will reveal your behavioral blindspots along with the right affirmations for you in this specific season of your life as a woman. Finally, they will feel authentic to you and you will experience physical side effects like chills when using them.
Journaling prompts – Once you know the basics of your archetype you can begin effectively integrating the right shadow work and journaling prompts for you to liberate you from the guilt, shame and fear that’s robbing you of the best parts of life, business, and womanhood.
A helpful alternative way to think of archetype activation and embodiment is to imagine taking on different alter egos that magically enable you to access different super powers at different times. For example, if you are the Rebel Maiden archetype who typically struggles with sales because of her fears of rejection and abandonment, you could learn to embody the Queen Mother archetype to overcome those fears and step into a more confident stance.
Now that we have the foundation poured, let’s go a little deeper into how you can embody the Queen Mother Archetype to adopt a sovereign mindset around sales that will eliminate the drama.
Secrets Of A Sovereign Sales Mindset
The two biggest mistakes most women make when it comes to their sales mindset is constantly moving the goalpost on themselves so they are never satisfied and staying stuck in a state of struggle due to unrealistic standards they set for themselves that immediately paralyzes them.
Instead, we can opt to embody our inner Queen, who in her full power models prioritizing self care and self-nourishment over achievements and caring for others in hopes of one day being valued.
That starts with leveraging our inner Rebel Maiden (or hiring one like me) to create a strategy that will set you up for quick, consistent, and meaningful wins that will strengthen your self-trust and progressively dissolve the behavioral patterns that are creating the most drama you experience around sales.
Next, prioritize falling madly in love with research, development, and validation. Not validation of you, but of your offer using what I call pre-selling packages. I love using pre-selling packages which allow my clients to cover the costs of my done-for-you courses and group coaching programs before I even create them because it eliminates the worry that my clients won’t be happy with the end results and the ROI of hiring me.
One of the biggest reasons so many women are so chained to their devices all day despite claiming they are digital nomads with unlimited freedom is that they aren’t pre-selling a.k.a. Validating their offers before they spend weeks, months, or even years of their time creating and launching their idea to crickets.
If you have ever experienced the agony of launching to crickets you get nauseous at the amount of time and emotion and drama that went into it for what felt like little more than another tough life lesson in return.
So if you refuse to ever let yourself go through that again, put offer validation on a pedestal and while you’re at it, create a system for doing it that a VA can execute for you while you log off for a guilt-free minute knowing that your ROI will be guaranteed from here on out.
Speaking of VA’s, you can absolutely outsource your sales in a thousand different ways and if you’re new to outsourcing I actually recommend that you outsource money-making tasks like direct sales so that you know no matter what that money is being made daily (regardless of you). The result will be a shift in your security and confidence which will in turn attract higher value clients that will be more empowered and happy to pay what feels fair to you both.
Secrets Of A Drama Free Inbound Sales Strategy
Inbound sales in this tumultuous new era of ai-powered digital marketing requires a commitment to quality unlike we have ever seen before. Creators that create for the sake of it or that consistently put out “replaceable” content that doesn’t solve a serious problem in a unique way is a flat out waste of company resources.
As new creators, freelancers and artists of all kinds flood the marketplace and wage war for their place in this world against the perceived threats of AI, they face a specific challenge: creating content that can’t be replaced or duplicated by AI that also creates a dopamine drip that rewards the buyer for choosing to support human-generated work.
Having spent the better part of the last decade crafting content strategies, I believe this means that only those who are able to produce high-quality thought-leadership-based content that leverages critical thinking will win.
All of the rest (outside of the entertainment niche) is a waste of your time.
Again, this is where understanding the ins and outs of the behavioral patterns (or archetypes) of your audience can really come in handy because each one’s profile will highlight the areas where new thought-leadership is needed in your industry. In other words, you will find a whooooollllelotta shortcuts to category queen status because your voice will immediately stand out in the biggest gaps that exist in the marketplace.
This is how you make the blue ocean come to you.
Critical Thinking Content Pillars based on the psychology of your audience that is provacative the same way people experience movies like Inception will win at scale. If, your audience can’t stop thinking about it and every time they consume it they walk away with something more than before, you can start picking out your throne now future category Queen.
Additionally, while tools like neurolinguistic programming (NLP) and SEO which elite freelancers like myself have been using for years to create conversions will still matter. But they will require the other components I just discussed as well because AI is becoming well-trained at both of these and knowing how to use them is no longer as much of a competitive advantage.
In my opinion, the best way to set yourself up for steady inbound leads moving forward into 2024 and beyond, is to take a more holistic and intentional approach to SEO that has nothing to do without outsourcing to a traditional SEO company (because 90% are scams anyway).
Secrets Of A Drama-Free Offer Suite That Serves You
One of the most overwhelming, diverging and stressful parts of sales for many established service providers is knowing that you’re leaving money on the table while constantly repeating the same tasks and answering the same questions/problems.
Often, this is because of an incomplete or misaligned offer suite that doesn’t match the buyer journey of the archetype of your ideal clients. As a result, your offers don’t guide your clients and customers through a well-thought out journey of transformation that anticipates the problems your audience will experience along the way and get ahead of them.
When you take your time listening to your audience and crafting an intentional offer suite that serves your ideal client at every stage of their journey, the majority of the time-consuming and mentally-draining sales drama evaporates because the nurturing becomes passive. This is also beneficial for you and the customer because it allows you to offer solutions at every price point if you want to opitmize the lifetime value of every customer.
The other secret to a drama-free sales suite that you need to shift your mindset around is prioritizing passive offers over active offers which require you to be present and active in your business.
Key Takeaways Of Drama-Free Sales Secrets:
- As we’ve journeyed through the world of drama-filled sales cycles and the struggles faced by service providers, it’s clear that the challenges go beyond surface-level symptoms. The root cause lies in the collective behavioral patterning, unconsciously guiding us to act as mere robots following subconscious stories about money, sales, and relationships. But there is hope—a powerful solution lies in activating our archetypes.
- By embracing the world of Jungian Psychology and reconnecting with our inner Wild Woman, we can tap into the magic of the 4 Divine Feminine Archetypes: The Sage Dreamer, The Rebel Maiden, The Queen Mother, and The Wild Enchantress. Each archetype represents unique behavioral patterns that drive women, and by understanding and activating them, we can empower ourselves in unprecedented ways.
- Through archetype activation, the seemingly “silly woo” activities transform into meaningful practices that bring real results. We experience mindset shifts that resonate deeply with our unique psychology. Affirmations and journaling prompts tailored to our archetype become powerful tools for self-liberation from guilt, shame, and fear.
- Moreover, embracing our inner Queen Mother archetype helps us create a sovereign sales mindset. No longer do we move the goalpost endlessly, nor do we let unrealistic standards paralyze us. Instead, we prioritize self-care and self-nourishment, allowing our inner Rebel Maiden to devise a strategy that leads to consistent and meaningful wins.
- Furthermore, offer validation becomes paramount. By testing and validating our offers before investing substantial time and effort, we ensure a guaranteed return on investment and avoid launching to crickets. Outsourcing money-making tasks like direct sales to virtual assistants enhances our security and confidence, attracting higher-value clients who appreciate and value our services.
- In this new era of AI-powered digital marketing, creators must prioritize high-quality thought-leadership-based content that stimulates critical thinking. Understanding the psychology of our audience and addressing their unique needs in the content allows us to stand out as category queens, making the blue ocean come to us.
- A holistic and intentional approach to SEO, combined with provoking critical thinking content pillars, sets us up for steady inbound leads. As AI advances in neurolinguistic programming and SEO, these tools alone won’t guarantee an edge—our unique voice and intentional approach become our competitive advantage.
- Finally, crafting a drama-free offer suite that serves our ideal clients at every stage of their journey becomes essential. By anticipating their problems and providing solutions along the way, we transform the nurturing process into a passive journey, reducing sales-related stress and repetitive tasks.
