Telling isn't selling!

I am a myth buster.

You won't see me on Discovery Channel though, well not yet anyway. You will hear me busting the "myth of selling" through my classes, my writing and when you meet me. This is my goal: to change the way people sell. Selling is an amazingly creative and fun process and that is what I want to impress upon you. Not only that, the art of sales is the art of clear communication, listening and relationship building. Learning this has changed my life and the lives of those I "sell with" and it can change yours as well!


People think selling is about pushing your product or service on your client or prospect. Others still think that it is about telling their story, sharing about how their product or service has changed their life. It isn't. Selling is so much more. Selling is about building relationships and discovering who your prospect is as a human being. Beyond that, selling will help you to discover who YOU ARE as a human being. If you follow my Equation for Success: VISION + VALUE + KNOWLEDGE + TOOLS = SUCCESS you will understand your own VALUE as a human being and this will transform you in ways you wouldn't imagine. The art of sales is a collaborative process. In this process we learn about ourselves, about our prospects and we build strong relationships with ourselves and our prospects!

Think about it, you go to a networking group and share your story. What happens if the person you share your story with has a different story? The person you are speaking with might not have the same problem you had and you could easily lose them right here. You can start over, and start building from that place, but it will be six times harder to build this relationship because you haven't established trust.


Many companies teach their sales people to "share" their story to bond with potential customers and clients. I am the first to tell you that this is a myth. Telling isn't selling. Discovering is selling! Learn about your prospect first and then selectively share your story when appropriate. Be yourself and reach out to ask about your prospect and learn about them. Don't make the sale the primary goal, make learning about your prospect's needs the primary goal and you will make the sale.


If you don't make the sale, you will build a relationship and this will lead to a sale down the road or a referral and a bigger sale. Trust the selling process and have fun with it, don't push.


Selling can be transformative if you allow yourself to embrace the process. If you are connected to your VISION you will feel the passion that drives you and so will everyone you reach out to. What about your VALUE? I mean your VALUE beyond your product or service. When you understand your intrinsic VALUE and reach out to people grounded in this understanding you reach out in a powerful way.

This is a powerful place to visit, your intrinsic VALUE as a human being and why you are special. When you are able to truly appreciate your own VALUE then you easily lead by example. People are drawn to you and you can easily build powerful relationships with others, because you have built a powerful relationship with yourself. KNOWLEDGE is your bridge to your prospects and clients. When you add in the TOOLS you can only WIN! Selling becomes bridge building because we are touching people in a way that lets them know we care.


I believe that we can change the way people do business. Selling becomes a way of connecting that shows our clients or prospects we care about them, not only about the sale. We don't tell our story but we listen to theirs. We just relate to them as human beings and we offer them our presence and our clear communication. We don't tell them our story until they ask and they will. So, selling becomes so much more than just telling!

I would love to hear from you!

Reach out to me and tell me your stories and share your thoughts about the selling process and I can share them with my readers: carolyn@essentialselling.com

Cold Calling IS Selling

I am on the phone a lot.

I practice what I preach. I make cold calls. I reach out on a daily basis and let people know that I am here to help. I love it.

As you can imagine, I speak to a lot of people. What I hear a lot of is, “I don’t like cold calling, I like to build relationships”.

I always chuckle, because by the time I get off the phone with these people I know quite a bit about them, and I have planted the seeds for a budding relationship.

The core of Essential Selling is building relationships AND cold calling is selling. So, to bring this to its logical conclusion, you can build relationships by picking up the phone and making cold calls.

I love cold calling because I can learn about a lot of different people. I can also make "friends" by cold calling. This is great, because people want to do business with people they like. I have so many people in my “rolodex” that I have known for years over the phone. When we finally do meet, it is as if we are two pen pals meeting for the first time. It is quite a lot of fun.

Cold calling is an incredibly affordable tool that allows you to reach out beyond people you meet at local events, networking and chamber events and conferences. It is a tool that enables you to laser focus your time and reach out to ANYONE in your target market ANYWHERE. You never know who will show up at your local networking event, but you KNOW who you are reaching out to when you create a target list of prospects to call.

Think about your day and your time and how easy it would be to take one or two hours out of your day, without driving to an event and just reach out easily to your target market. Great right?

Why don’t more people utilize this incredible SELLING tool?

Some reasons are:

Fear
Discomfort
Not knowing what to say
Not knowing who to say it to
Not knowing how to get through to the decision maker

Instead, people will continue to do the same thing over and over. It is time to do something new. It is time to reach out and touch as many people as possible. It is time to think in a creative new way and sometimes that is just as simple as picking up the phone and getting back to basics.

My next course starts on Tuesday April 21st at 12pm PST. If you are ready to MAKE MORE SALES, you might want to consider joining.

Check out some of the comments from people who have taken my course and reach out to me for more information!


"Essential Selling's "Cold Calling" is a powerful tool for growing your business! After completing the course I quickly began applying the practical telephone techniques to my marketing plan. As a result, within a few weeks a tremendous opportunity was uncovered that has allowed me to connect face-to-face with target customers who will benefit from SmartChoice Resume's service. Thank you Essential Selling!"

Dala Gorner
Smart Choice Resume



"I've never done sales, don't consider myself a big phone talker, and have dealt with poor confidence for the last few years due to depression and fatigue. So I have many obstacles to overcome. That's why I got very excited when I heard what Carolyn was doing with her cold calling class. I was looking for guidance just like this.

I decided Tuesday (today!) would be my first day out in the field approaching business owners. Doing Carolyn's first exercise (From her Essential Cold Calling System™) and clearly defining my WHY and my future vision was crucial in order to go out on my first day.

I spent about 2 hours writing a detailed description of everything I will have and be in 5 years. Even so I was still terrified and called Carolyn for some moral support and finally around 12:30, made myself get in the car and go to my first appointment. I almost turned around about 3 times, then I sat in my car for about 10 minutes deep breathing and reminding myself of my WHY and that I could do it.

So I finally got my butt out of the car and approached the businesses on my researched list. The 1st biz owner wasn't there, the 2nd wasn't either, but the 3rd one was and was very pleasant. We sat and talked about his business for 30 minutes, I even showed him the entire presentation. Although he did not buy the membership right there, I think he might later. I stopped there and came home elated and bubbling with excitement!

I am so very proud of myself for facing this seemingly overwhelming fear of talking to business owners. I'm going out again tomorrow and I'm going to talk to 10 business owner this time.

Looking forward to working more of the Essential Selling Cold Calling System with you Carolyn,"

Trista Thompson
Pre-Paid Legal

Contact me for more information! carolyn@essentialselling.com

HERE'S MY DEFINITION OF ATTRACTION MARKETING

Attraction Marketing is a term that you can find all over the internet!

This is the “new” model for network marketing, MLM’s and other businesses. Everyone is using the term and everyone is doing it so that they can become “the hunted and not the hunter”! This is a great concept. It works for certain businesses and certain products and services. The stars line up correctly and you make your passive millions.

I have a little bit of a different take on attraction marketing. If you aren’t on the top of the search engines, coming up in the first 5 places on Google or Yahoo, I don’t know how well attraction marketing will work for you. But let’s put that aside, because that only takes money and a good writer.

Let’s say you do get people coming to your website. Now what? Do they just buy your product? Or are they browsing? What if they have questions? Are you going to answer all their questions via email? How are you going to build the relationship?

Is your e-zine, newsletter, or email campaign going to be the one that will stand out from all the rest? Why? What is it about your correspondence that makes it better than the person that sent their e-zine five minutes before you sent yours?

I am not trying to be negative, this is just my opinion. In this frantic “attraction-marketing-market” it doesn’t matter how well written your e-zine is or how funny or cute, because the only thing that will differentiate you from all your competition is YOU!

This is what I mean about Attraction Marketing. If you want to attract someone to you then you need to be strong and confident in your communication and at some point your communication will need to be live.

Many of the people who have built their internet empires started somewhere and rumor has it that they started with talking to a lot of people; both, in person and on the phone. The people who have built their empires on the internet had to start somewhere. Just a little note, when they did start, there were a lot less people doing what they were doing, that is why they teach it now!

I am not saying that you shouldn’t utilize all the tools in your tool box and one tool is attraction marketing.

It is time for so much more. It is time for focus. It is time for direction. It is time to stand out and know your worth, your value, the benefits you can offer and how to build relationships! At some point you will need to pick up the phone, either to follow up or reach out. So, think about it. Are you ready for that? Are you ready to stand out amongst your competition as the one that offers the personal touch? Are you ready, as an expert, to offer the professionalism to follow up and reach out?

My definition of attraction marketing is this: If you reach out and know why you are reaching out and the value you offer someone and you have the knowledge to back it all up as an expert, you will naturally attract your customers to you. People will be drawn to you and even if they don’t work with you immediately, they will eventually! Or they might just refer someone to you!

Just my two cents and a different spin on attraction marketing to about.

Learn more: carolyn@essntialselling.com Stay tuned for my updated website...