Show Notes
Lena writes: "I know I need to sell, but I hate it. I feel pushy. How do I get better at this?"
Scott's confession: For years, he hated selling too. He did it to pay the bills, but he didn't love it.
The belief shift: Sales isn't convincing. It's solving problems.
Where the sleaze comes from: Pitching before diagnosing. If you start selling before you understand the problem, it feels pushy—because it is.
The reframe: You're not asking for money. You're offering to help someone solve a problem they already have. That's what doctors do.
The financial advisor story: Pitching bonds didn't work. Asking "Are you hoping to grow your money for future generations?" did. The shift: stop pitching products, start diagnosing problems.
You already sell every day. When a family member asks for advice, you give it. You even push them a little. The only thing missing is the money exchange.
The Starbucks exercise: If you're terrified of asking for money, go to Starbucks and ask: "Can I have a discount on this because I'm having a rough day?" The word "because" increases compliance. Practice asking for something.
The prescription:
- Stop pitching.
- Start asking: What's going on? What have you tried? What would solving this mean to you?
The close: It's a mindset problem first. Solve that, and your business takes off.
Got a business question? Ask Scott here: scotttodd.net/ask
📜 Full Transcript (Click to expand)
Scott Todd (00:01.752)
Do you feel slimy, sleazy trying to make sales? Do you feel like I hate this? Well, don't worry because you're not alone, and that's what we're gonna talk about in today's episode. And this is driven by Lena's question, and she writes, I know I need to sell, but I hate it. I feel pushy. How do I get better at this?
Great question, Lena. Thank you. Welcome to Fix My Business. I'm your host, Scott Todd, and I have built multiple seven-figure businesses after leaving my corporate VP job. And I want to help you do the same thing and build a business that you love and gives you all the freedom that you want and all the other stuff. And Lena, Lena's question is not unusual. In fact, for a period of my career, I was in sales. Like that's how I paid the bills with sales. And you know what?
I hated it. I hated selling. I had to go do it to pay the bills, but I didn't enjoy it. And when I got into my own business, I was in sales and still didn't like it. I did it, but I didn't love it. And I think that the biggest challenge here comes from changing your mindset about what sales really is. You see, when we're on the receiving end.
Of the whole process, it feels like we're being pushed into doing things. And so then when we have to now revert into the sales piece and we have to put on our salesman hat, what happens is we have this conception, preconceived conception of well, what sales is. For a very long period of time, I taught a class and one of the questions I asked was when you think of salesperson, what do you think of? And the number one answer all the time, and look, if this is your job.
I'm sorry, but this is just the honest truth was used car salesperson. That's what people thought of when you talked about salespeople. And it's been a while since I taught that class. Maybe today they're talking about, I don't know, the door-to-door solicitors. I don't know. But you see, sales is not really convincing. It's solving problems. And I want you to think about the very last episode, episode sixty-nine, where I gave you the doctor analogy.
Scott Todd (02:22.89)
You see, the sales sleaze, if you will, comes from pitching things before you've diagnosed it. So let me give an example. you you meet somebody and instantly without ever knowing them, you start to say to them, hey, you should buy what I have. Well, that's pushy. That's what I would concern consider you agree with you is that's probably the sleazy part. But if someone has a problem.
And remember, people only buy things because they have a problem, real or perceived. If somebody has a problem, then as a fellow human being, I feel compelled to help them solve that problem. I feel compelled to help you solve problems I've already had. That's why I do this podcast. And so when you reframe it from that mindset that, hey, all of a sudden, this is not about pitching somebody just to take their money.
It's about saying to them, Hey, here's a solution to a problem that you have. Well now be we become hopeful to them.
Think about that for a minute. We can help fellow mankind by helping them solve a problem. So if you hate selling, that hatred or that dislike or that discomfort probably comes from you being sold the wrong way in the past. And that's the whole idea here is that we have to reframe what we're doing.
So that we're not asking for money, we're offering to help someone solve a problem that they already have.
Scott Todd (04:11.602)
That's what the doctor does. The doctor identifies what problem you have because you've articulated where my throat hurts. You've articulated this, and the doctor says, okay, well, I might have the solution. And it's either this medicine or this treatment or whatever it is that's going on. And when we think about it from that perspective, we're just helping people. That's all we're doing. Now, back, I told you I was in sales for a while.
For a very long time. I sold a lot of different stuff. One of the things that I sold was, well, I was a financial advisor. Okay. Like I sold stocks and bonds and insurance and all that other stuff. Okay. And one of the things that I learned from selling bonds is that at first it was kind of weird because I would say to somebody, hey, I'd call them up on the phone and say, hey, I've got this, you know, municipal bond and it's paying 5% interest for 30 years.
How does that sound? And they're like, I don't want a bond. Okay. All right. What about this stock? And you know, you you get beat up like that over a period of time, and then you start to realize, like, hey, there's got to be a better way of doing this. There's got to be a better way of thinking this through. Okay. So it was never about the stock or the bond, but it was really about understanding what problem they were trying to solve. So when I took a different approach by talking to somebody and saying, Hey, could you use more
Income every month or every quarter? Nah, I'm good on that. are you hoping to grow your money for future generations or for future usage? Yes. See, now I knew that they weren't necessarily talking about a bond that would pay them on a monthly or quarterly basis. I knew they were looking at stock and stock appreciation. Maybe some dividends in there, right? Like it was part of that conversation. So when I would go out and I would pitch something first without understanding really, really, really what
Problem they were trying to solve, then I didn't feel good. But when all of a sudden I was able to help someone solve a problem that gave them more income, I felt way better. I felt better about asking them to buy whatever I was presenting because I knew they had this problem. And it didn't mean that they bought it. It could have meant that they didn't have the money. It wasn't the right time. They didn't trust me enough. They didn't know enough about me. They didn't understand what it was. There's many other reasons than just, yeah, I have this problem.
Scott Todd (06:37.529)
Because the next component comes from understanding that not only are you able to provide the solution, but your solution is sound.
And when we think about it again from this new lens and new perspective that, hey, we're just helping people, then it takes some of the burden off of us. The other day, a family member was asking me a question about, hey, what what would you do in this situation? And I gave them an honest answer. Now, the honest answer also did not mean that I was trying to sell them something.
But in some way I was selling them that my solution was correct. Now I didn't, there was no economic exchange of value here. There was no money that exchanged, other than they came to me with a problem. I told them how I would solve that problem. And then in some way I kind of had to push them a little bit to say, this is why I know this is right. Even though they came to me asking me for the problem.
So how many times a day do you do that? How many times in your life do you do that? How many times do people ask you for information? And the only thing that's missing is you asking them to give you money in exchange for what you just gave them. That's the only missing component. Now, I did have somebody that I worked with once who was just absolutely terrified of asking for money. They were just absolutely terrified of it to the point that they they just
They were just completely shutting down. They were like, I cannot even do this business, or I can't even run a business because I cannot ask people to buy what I have. And there is that level of discomfort that's out there. That does not necessarily mean that you can't have a business. It also just means that you probably need to find somebody who can help you overcome that one piece. But my advice to her was
Scott Todd (08:38.368)
That she should go to a Starbucks, for example, or a place that she goes to every day and ask one simple question. Just ask one simple question. And that is, can I have a discount on this because and make whatever you want up? See, when we use the word because, we're more likely to get what we want. We're more likely to get whatever we want. Stud that's a research. You can go re you can go Google that, right?
Does the word because go ask your favorite GPT. Does the word because give me a better chance of getting what I want? 100% it does. You could walk in front of a line of people at Starbucks and say, excuse me, do you mind if I cut in line here because I'm thirsty? Well, so is everybody else in line? You will probably get all the way to the front.
Try it out. Can I get a discount on this? Because I really, I'm really not having a great day. And this discount would just like pip me up. I get you, I bet you you get it. I bet you you get it. So the prescription here, the thing I want you to do is I want you to stop pitching. I want you to stop saying like you need to buy this or stop trying to convince them that what you have is the best. And start asking questions. What's going on?
What have you tried? What would solving this problem mean to you? What would it be like in your world if this were possible? See, all of this now gets them convincing themselves that this is the right next step.
Doesn't mean that you're not going to have to deal with other objections. You can deal with those later on. But it's a mindset first issue. And when you solve that problem, man, man, is your business going to take off? All right, I appreciate the question. If you have a business question, head over to scott.net forward slash ask. And I will see you in our next episode.
Do you feel slimy, sleazy trying to make sales? Do you feel like I hate this? Well, don't worry because you're not alone, and that's what we're gonna talk about in today's episode. And this is driven by Lena's question, and she writes, I know I need to sell, but I hate it. I feel pushy. How do I get better at this?
Great question, Lena. Thank you. Welcome to Fix My Business. I'm your host, Scott Todd, and I have built multiple seven-figure businesses after leaving my corporate VP job. And I want to help you do the same thing and build a business that you love and gives you all the freedom that you want and all the other stuff. And Lena, Lena's question is not unusual. In fact, for a period of my career, I was in sales. Like that's how I paid the bills with sales. And you know what?
I hated it. I hated selling. I had to go do it to pay the bills, but I didn't enjoy it. And when I got into my own business, I was in sales and still didn't like it. I did it, but I didn't love it. And I think that the biggest challenge here comes from changing your mindset about what sales really is. You see, when we're on the receiving end.
Of the whole process, it feels like we're being pushed into doing things. And so then when we have to now revert into the sales piece and we have to put on our salesman hat, what happens is we have this conception, preconceived conception of well, what sales is. For a very long period of time, I taught a class and one of the questions I asked was when you think of salesperson, what do you think of? And the number one answer all the time, and look, if this is your job.
I'm sorry, but this is just the honest truth was used car salesperson. That's what people thought of when you talked about salespeople. And it's been a while since I taught that class. Maybe today they're talking about, I don't know, the door-to-door solicitors. I don't know. But you see, sales is not really convincing. It's solving problems. And I want you to think about the very last episode, episode sixty-nine, where I gave you the doctor analogy.
Scott Todd (02:22.89)
You see, the sales sleaze, if you will, comes from pitching things before you've diagnosed it. So let me give an example. you you meet somebody and instantly without ever knowing them, you start to say to them, hey, you should buy what I have. Well, that's pushy. That's what I would concern consider you agree with you is that's probably the sleazy part. But if someone has a problem.
And remember, people only buy things because they have a problem, real or perceived. If somebody has a problem, then as a fellow human being, I feel compelled to help them solve that problem. I feel compelled to help you solve problems I've already had. That's why I do this podcast. And so when you reframe it from that mindset that, hey, all of a sudden, this is not about pitching somebody just to take their money.
It's about saying to them, Hey, here's a solution to a problem that you have. Well now be we become hopeful to them.
Think about that for a minute. We can help fellow mankind by helping them solve a problem. So if you hate selling, that hatred or that dislike or that discomfort probably comes from you being sold the wrong way in the past. And that's the whole idea here is that we have to reframe what we're doing.
So that we're not asking for money, we're offering to help someone solve a problem that they already have.
Scott Todd (04:11.602)
That's what the doctor does. The doctor identifies what problem you have because you've articulated where my throat hurts. You've articulated this, and the doctor says, okay, well, I might have the solution. And it's either this medicine or this treatment or whatever it is that's going on. And when we think about it from that perspective, we're just helping people. That's all we're doing. Now, back, I told you I was in sales for a while.
For a very long time. I sold a lot of different stuff. One of the things that I sold was, well, I was a financial advisor. Okay. Like I sold stocks and bonds and insurance and all that other stuff. Okay. And one of the things that I learned from selling bonds is that at first it was kind of weird because I would say to somebody, hey, I'd call them up on the phone and say, hey, I've got this, you know, municipal bond and it's paying 5% interest for 30 years.
How does that sound? And they're like, I don't want a bond. Okay. All right. What about this stock? And you know, you you get beat up like that over a period of time, and then you start to realize, like, hey, there's got to be a better way of doing this. There's got to be a better way of thinking this through. Okay. So it was never about the stock or the bond, but it was really about understanding what problem they were trying to solve. So when I took a different approach by talking to somebody and saying, Hey, could you use more
Income every month or every quarter? Nah, I'm good on that. are you hoping to grow your money for future generations or for future usage? Yes. See, now I knew that they weren't necessarily talking about a bond that would pay them on a monthly or quarterly basis. I knew they were looking at stock and stock appreciation. Maybe some dividends in there, right? Like it was part of that conversation. So when I would go out and I would pitch something first without understanding really, really, really what
Problem they were trying to solve, then I didn't feel good. But when all of a sudden I was able to help someone solve a problem that gave them more income, I felt way better. I felt better about asking them to buy whatever I was presenting because I knew they had this problem. And it didn't mean that they bought it. It could have meant that they didn't have the money. It wasn't the right time. They didn't trust me enough. They didn't know enough about me. They didn't understand what it was. There's many other reasons than just, yeah, I have this problem.
Scott Todd (06:37.529)
Because the next component comes from understanding that not only are you able to provide the solution, but your solution is sound.
And when we think about it again from this new lens and new perspective that, hey, we're just helping people, then it takes some of the burden off of us. The other day, a family member was asking me a question about, hey, what what would you do in this situation? And I gave them an honest answer. Now, the honest answer also did not mean that I was trying to sell them something.
But in some way I was selling them that my solution was correct. Now I didn't, there was no economic exchange of value here. There was no money that exchanged, other than they came to me with a problem. I told them how I would solve that problem. And then in some way I kind of had to push them a little bit to say, this is why I know this is right. Even though they came to me asking me for the problem.
So how many times a day do you do that? How many times in your life do you do that? How many times do people ask you for information? And the only thing that's missing is you asking them to give you money in exchange for what you just gave them. That's the only missing component. Now, I did have somebody that I worked with once who was just absolutely terrified of asking for money. They were just absolutely terrified of it to the point that they they just
They were just completely shutting down. They were like, I cannot even do this business, or I can't even run a business because I cannot ask people to buy what I have. And there is that level of discomfort that's out there. That does not necessarily mean that you can't have a business. It also just means that you probably need to find somebody who can help you overcome that one piece. But my advice to her was
Scott Todd (08:38.368)
That she should go to a Starbucks, for example, or a place that she goes to every day and ask one simple question. Just ask one simple question. And that is, can I have a discount on this because and make whatever you want up? See, when we use the word because, we're more likely to get what we want. We're more likely to get whatever we want. Stud that's a research. You can go re you can go Google that, right?
Does the word because go ask your favorite GPT. Does the word because give me a better chance of getting what I want? 100% it does. You could walk in front of a line of people at Starbucks and say, excuse me, do you mind if I cut in line here because I'm thirsty? Well, so is everybody else in line? You will probably get all the way to the front.
Try it out. Can I get a discount on this? Because I really, I'm really not having a great day. And this discount would just like pip me up. I get you, I bet you you get it. I bet you you get it. So the prescription here, the thing I want you to do is I want you to stop pitching. I want you to stop saying like you need to buy this or stop trying to convince them that what you have is the best. And start asking questions. What's going on?
What have you tried? What would solving this problem mean to you? What would it be like in your world if this were possible? See, all of this now gets them convincing themselves that this is the right next step.
Doesn't mean that you're not going to have to deal with other objections. You can deal with those later on. But it's a mindset first issue. And when you solve that problem, man, man, is your business going to take off? All right, I appreciate the question. If you have a business question, head over to scott.net forward slash ask. And I will see you in our next episode.