The Client Letter
October 28, 2013
The Desert of Arizona
Still Dark 52 Degrees
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Over the years, I’ve gotten pretty good at selling. I really was terrible at it when I started. But through a lot of practice, trial, error and a ton of mistakes, I’ve improved. Heck, I do it for a living now. I actually like it.
While some say that the ability to sell is a great asset, my experience is that it has also been responsible for its share of challenges in my business.
Here’s the reason:
The better you get at selling yourself, the higher your chances of ending up somewhere you don’t belong – with a client whose project you shouldn’t be involved with.
As you get closer to the end of the spectrum where you might actually be able to sell ice to eskimos, you have to constantly ask yourself if you’re pointing that skill at the right opportunities.
Do you have a clear picture of who your perfect clients are?
Then why don’t you have more of them?
For me, the answer is because I often sell my way into projects I shouldn’t be involved in.
Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Especially if the purpose of your business is to support your life instead of drive you crazy.
What tends to happen when you sell yourself into something you shouldn’t is that you end up working too hard for too little.
It’s not your client’s fault, even though that’s what it feels like. The fault is all YOURS.
Do you have a way to analyze whether a project or a client is a smart choice for you? Or do you just jump in and hope/pray that it’s going to turn into something.
I used to do the latter, but I’m improving.
This is why I like sorting instead of selling. Sorting is completely different. You take a look at your available opportunities and you pick and choose what you want to be involved in.
You don’t sell your way into ANY of them. You simply communicate what type of things you’re looking for and keep an eye out for them to show up.
That’s why you develop a Platform. It brings the opportunities into your field of vision.
Selling is cool, but it’s not without risk. And a big one of those risks for service providers is “wasting” the time you have on this planet working in places you shouldn’t.
Making selling obsolete is even more fun. Then you just sift and sort and let the cream rise to the top.
That’s the power of the Platform. And you can learn how to use that power for yourself here. It pretty much takes your need to sell yourself off the table. Everyone shows up having already sold themselves on YOU.
And it’s a beautiful thing.