Christine Schlonski [0:02]
Hey Gorgeous. This is episode number 107. You are listening to Heart Sells! Podcast. I am your host, Christine Schlonski. Today is Variety Friday where I am sharing my knowledge, resources, recommendations, or I answer your questions. Today I want to talk about a topic that I call Sales Depression. I’m quite sure we all have been there. Before we dive in, make sure you hop on over to https://christineschlonski.com/ find the podcast tab and there you have all the podcast episodes with the show notes, the transcripts, the links to all the resources, so you can really dive in.

Christine Schlonski [0:48]
Do you know this feeling when you really think you have to pick up the phone, you have to make that call, but something within you is just so reluctant, you feel this pressure inside and it feels achy and you just can’t get yourself to make that call? The more you think about it, the more difficult it gets, because you have all the chatter in your mind going on. Like the person might not be interested, I don’t want to disturb, it’s not a good time to call, whatever it is, it is just an excuse. The more we think about it, the more difficult we make it.

Christine Schlonski [1:33]
I remember I had those days back in my corporate world, well, quite often as maybe exaggerated. But I had them once in a while where I felt I could not call anybody because it felt heavy, it was dragging and I was just exhausted thinking about it. What could happen if I made the call? I could have been rejected or people could laugh at me, scream at me hang up. But whatever the scenario was, it was just in my mind. I call it Sales Depression. It’s like a real depression. It helps you not to move. When you’re really depressed. Maybe you’ve been there. Maybe you know that feeling where you just feel like you can’t handle any situation what so ever.

Christine Schlonski [2:26]
Those days, obviously don’t help our business, don’t help the mission, don’t help the message that we have to get it out in the world. To be really honest, that doesn’t help the client you want to serve because if your message doesn’t get out there, well, that’s not a good sign. The month of August, I want to really dedicate to the topic rejection, and Sales Depression is part of rejection, it’s not the actual rejection by a customer. It starts before that step. Because we don’t even pick up the phone. We don’t even make that connection call or we don’t even go to the networking meeting. We miss out on all of the fun and exciting stuff. Because in our heads, we play the worst-case scenario.

Christine Schlonski [3:21]
I’ve seen so many people and as I said, I’ve been there myself, that once you have those days where you can’t move, there’s nothing going to happen. If you have one of those days, that’s okay. But for some people, one of those days follows another one and another one and another one, and all of a sudden, it’s a week or two weeks, or a month or two months, or maybe even more, which is really scary because you don’t get any new clients into your business if you don’t talk to anybody. We all know no money, no business. Then it’s maybe a hobby or we give some advice. What also happens during that time is that our confidence level really, really goes down.

Christine Schlonski [4:15]
The best moment to have a clients conversation is when somebody just said yes, not only to themselves, but to you as their mentor, their coach, or the person providing the service or the product. When you are energetically at this level, that is the best time to actually win a new client, to make another invitation to someone. The biggest question has always been, ‘How do I get out of this funk?’ What can I do, so that I feel good inside, because I’m so afraid of picking up the phone or making the appointment for the meeting because I don’t feel good, I feel not confident enough. What has always helped is, first of all, that you really admit that you are in this situation that you are suffering from Sales Depression, it’s like a real depression, only when it comes to your business, where you block everything off and everyone so that you can be with yourself and that you can just maybe sit silently at your PC to create something, but you’re not really willing to go out and to sell or to make invitations to your potential customers. The very first step is obviously noticing what is going on inside of you.

Christine Schlonski [5:53]
It’s easy to say, “Well, it’s just one of those days, tomorrow’s going to be better. And I’m going to go and call people tomorrow”, or, “I have to move this appointment because I don’t feel good enough”, and this is really a dangerous situation, because it will attract more of these, well, I call them excuses. Because if you can talk from your heart, if you can really be passionate and excited about what you do, then you would not want to stop yourself from making offers, you would want to be there for your potential clients because they are suffering. You are suffering from Sales Depression because you don’t dare to call because you don’t feel good. But they might have a really, really difficult challenge, they can only solve with your support. The first thing is, as I said, notice what’s going on.

Christine Schlonski [6:55]
The second thing is to get really, really clear. Is it the value you are offering? Is there enough value what you offer to the world? If it’s not, maybe you need to repackage or reprice or restructure your services or products, to make sure that you always deliver so much more than you are asking for, the investment the price. That’s one step, the next step. Once you admitted that it’s for you what I call Sales Depression, your client is still suffering, or your potential client is still suffering. What is it for them? Put yourself in their shoes, and really think like, if you don’t show up, well, first of all, somebody else could be showing up and they might not be as heart-centered as you are. They might not care as deeply as you care. They might not provide that amazing value that you usually provide. So there’s already a gap in the delivery. But since you’re not showing up, while they have to solve their pain, so they are going with the next best solution.

Christine Schlonski [8:20]
Once you’re clear about that, what is the value you offer? I hope that you feel already stronger inside. Something I used to kind of, well, let’s say trick myself into was that I created a little kind of challenge for myself to pick up the phone. Because once you pick up the phone, and you have a good call, it changes your whole energy and your whole outlook on having those conversations. So the key is, to keep going, to keep moving until you have this amazing conversation. You will catch on to this you will hear it on the phone, you will hear the voice. Sometimes clients are, they feel like they are a sponge, they absorb every single word you say. They agree you can feel that they are in alignment and that everything you say resonates. That’s basically those clients you want to invite in.

Christine Schlonski [9:26]
Once you have these conversations, where everything you say resonates with your potential client, where you can feel the excitement, where they have questions, where they’re really genuine and figuring out if they could actually work with you, that is a time when you can make an offer, when you can make an invitation, and where you can present your product or service. But to get to the point, you have to overcome your Sales Depression. With the very first client that has the slightest interest, and whatever you offer, I can promise you, that your depression gets smaller and smaller and smaller until it’s gone. I had that so often when I still made like 10s of calls a day like 30, 40, sometimes 50 or more cold calls reaching out to general managers, owners of companies, CEOs, to offer the high ticket events that are used to sell. You really had to make those efforts but once I had somebody on the phone and they showed the slightest interest, I started to have a really good conversation.

Christine Schlonski [10:45]
Since I always come from the place where I really want to be heart-centered, speaking from my heart, sending love to my potential client even before I know more about them, it changes the whole dynamic. All of a sudden you have a wonderful, fun conversation instead of a sales conversation. Then when you find out that the person is a match, you can even make an offer. But even if you don’t make an offer, if you just have a good conversation, it really helps you could get out of that funk and to have fun, to function like a regular human being who loves to have a conversation about the things they are passionate about. So just consider that when you feel like you can’t call anybody and you’re getting into that kind of Sales Depression, or you might be in it right now. Draw sand in the line, you’re not supporting your potential client by not showing up. Somebody else will grab that opportunity and they probably not as good as you are. They probably don’t have the experience you have. They’re probably not the kind of person that you are, they don’t have the mix. You want to make sure that if you believe in what you do, and you know you’re really amazing that you offer your services to the world, that you send out your message to as many people as you can. Because only when you allow yourself to touch them, to support them, to show up for them no matter how you feel. That’s when the magic happens.

Christine Schlonski [12:29]
Because if you put yourself in their shoes, you want somebody to show up for you. So you need to show up for your clients, you need to show them that you care. Obviously, it needs to be true, if you don’t care, don’t pretend to care. They figure it out anyway. But if you really, really care, you also need to show up for them. The good thing is, once you start serving, once you start putting yourself in their shoes and just show up for them, your Sales Depression will just go away.

Christine Schlonski [13:04]
I really hope that this was helpful. If you have any questions or comments or topics you would love for me to talk about, just send me an email to info@christineschlonski.com. I’d be happy to get back to you. If you have not yet download the anniversary issue. It’s the 100 first episodes of Heart Sells! including the titles, the names of the guests and the three key points, which you can actually take as either a learning tool, or you can take it as a tool to really look up the podcast episode that might give you the best information, the time you need it most. You will find that as well at https://christineschlonski.com/ under the podcast tab. All you need to do is sign in and download your personal copy and then you have the tool in your hand. Thank you so much for tuning in. Have a wonderful day wherever you are in this world and I’m saying bye for now.