Stop hiding, start selling: how to talk about your services when selling gives you the ick

🤔 Selling is cringy. Probably shouldn't mention the packages you offer. Stick to thought leadership and they'll come to you.

💰 If you talk about your packages, that's a bit close to talking about money. Which is crass. Avoid at all costs.

👉 All things my 90s upbringing have made me (and arguably a whole generation of women) believe. And all things that make no sense at all if you're running a business.

Let's change that.

Here's the truth:

There are people out there right now who need your services. Yes, there's a cost of living crisis. But look around—restaurants and coffee shops are still buzzing. People are still spending.

But if no one knows what you offer, how can they move from loving your content to becoming your client?

Let me share a personal story:

I follow a sustainable stylist on Instagram who is 100% aligned with my beliefs around not buying new. I followed her, I loved her content, I engaged with her posts, we DMed. We even got on a call. But after all that I had no idea what her actual services are or what they cost, so I told myself that I'd come back to it another day, and the days kept passing. The end result? I did nothing.

4 months later she put out a post that talked about one of her services. And you know what? It was exactly what I wanted. I booked her immediately. She had suddenly made it super easy for me to understand what she could do, see myself working with her and make it happen.

If the idea of selling your services makes you want to hide behind the sofa, here's what I recommend to my shyer clients:

Strategic storytelling: when you create content to share stories about your clients and how you helped them achieve XYZ, include a mention of the service they bought so your prospect can understand the types of results your services can help achieve. You don't need to talk about the cost at this stage - the prospect just needs to be able to understand what you actually offer. That means that by the time they get on a call with you, the cost is more of a formality.

Share your processes: your approach will be a significant part of what makes you stand out, so make sure that talking about it and how involved (or not) your clients are is in your content plan regularly. This makes it easy for prospects to understand how you work and to picture themselves going through those same steps. If timings are also a question that comes up a lot with your prospects, this is a great opportunity to make clear what the time investment is.

Make the most of your 'shopfront': your 'featured' section on LinkedIn is there to showcase the 2-3 things you really want your audience to know about. Make sure a link to your signature service is there. If your website offers more information and is set up to capture leads, include that on your profile too.

Your content should always be weighted towards demonstrating expertise, but don't forget to talk about what you actually offer. People are busy and easily distracted; make it really easy for them to engage with you at every single stage.