Authenticity Sells: My Top 10 Selling Strategies

In this episode of Shy Space, I dive into the power of authenticity in sales and introduce my "Five A's Framework". 

I share my top 10 sales strategies, blending my own experiences, mindset tips, and actionable advice for building trust and driving results. 

Whether you're a seasoned sales pro or just starting out, you'll find practical insights! 

Tune in for a candid, relatable conversation about selling with heart, staying true to yourself, and ending the year on a strong note! Thank you for being here! 

Xx, 

Shy ♡ 

Transcript

0:00

All right, well, hello and welcome back to Shy Space. Things are looking a little bit different here this week. If you're joining me on YouTube, I'm so sorry for how unprofessional I look. I have genuinely tucked myself into bed because I'm so exhausted. It's Friday afternoon. I just had an amazing work week. All beit a very busy and stressful one and I just need to be leaning back. I can't sit crisscross applesauce up there and like look presentable at all. So I apologize, but the perk here is that we got Ms. London laying in front of me and she really is the star of the show anyways, so. We're keeping it casual in my little camo hat today, in my outside clothes. God, I'm literally wearing my outside clothes in my bed, but whatever. It's been a busy week and I usually aim to film episodes on Mondays or Tuesdays, depending on how the week goes. So this is not ideal to be filming on a Friday afternoon, but sometimes this is just what it takes when you wanna get things done and you don't have as much time as you would like. So something that I am really leaning into at the end of this year, going into 2026, is first just ending the year on a strong note, especially because of what I went through with my breakup. Not to be dramatic, but it obviously rocked my world pretty aggressively. And, you know, I just wanna feel good about where I'm heading into the new year and just like have very clear goals and things in place for, for myself because I think that that's really important when you're given back, you know, time into your life when you enter reenter, being single like it, it really is a gift in some ways that I feel like I took for granted when I was single previously, and London is sniffing my microphone. I wonder if you can hear that. Do you have something to say? You are very sweet. She actually is very vocal, so I wouldn't be surprised if she started barking. But yeah, so I honestly, I lost my train of thought because she's so cute. What is there to talk about? Like we just need to cuddle. She's looking back at the camera. Like, what? Okay. Anyways I literally don't know what I was talking about. What the fuck? I remember now. Okay. My breakup rocked my world. Yeah. I just think that also another thing is, oh, she's gone going into year 30. Come on, get back up here. London up. Good girl. I don't know, going into 2026, starting this new job. It's just, I feel like I'm in a new chapter in my life. A new phase. Oh, she's getting her ball. No, you can't be squeaking that while I'm filming. Okay, we're back again. It's like having a child, honestly. I just wanna start the year on a strong note. And so I invested in that mentorship program. I told you guys about that last week, last week's episode was all about mentorship. And this week I really wanna talk about honestly, just like selling and some of my top sales strategies because I'm learning as I grow and evolve and, heal and gain confidence in myself and just gain more experiences, like I'm learning that what I have to say is actually very valuable and I have had a really successful sale sales career, I've been very lucky and I feel like I've learned a lot, and I just really wanna share that with people because that's what you do in life is share knowledge with others to make the world a better place. At least that's what I like to do. Anyways, that's what we're gonna be talking about today is my top 10 selling strategies. And the episode title is Authenticity Sells. So we're gonna be talking a lot about words that start with a and also just authenticity in general. So super excited about that. And London is as well. She is still trying to get her ball from behind me and I am saying no. Yeah. Also, I'm wearing my teamwork shirt. Just a little side note, this is not an ad, but I will give a free ad really quickly as an attempt to practice for the future when my podcast blows up and I need to do ad sections. So this episode is kindly sponsored by teamwork.com, the project management software that actually manages projects or allows you to do so, I should say. Have you ever spent your days wondering why you're just moving along data from different places rather than actually executing and strategizing on what it is that needs to be done within a project. Yeah, me too. That's what happens when you're working out of spreadsheets or you're working out of a system that is just completely disjointed and not user friendly and doesn't have common integrations that you can use. Well, let me just tell you right now that we've worked with teamwork a lot. I have personally worked with the teamwork team a lot. I have spent quite a bit of time with them at Inbound a couple years ago. And yeah, just had great conversations with their team. They're a phenomenal group of people and they're really, really, really driven with their mission and the product that they've made is exceptional, and I truly mean that wholeheartedly. At New Breed, we've actually worked with them from like a HubSpot side of things to do their HubSpot implementation. So we have a great relationship with them here as well. And yeah, I just, I think they're a great team and I genuinely think it's the best project management software. If you run an organization and you're in that field and you need a software that helps with that. I hope that this finds you because this is, like I said, not sponsored, like genuinely just a random girl that thinks it's a great software and trust me, I've used a ton of them. None of them compare, so yeah. Anyways, let's get into the meat and potatoes of the episode, shall we? I always get off track, so let's try not to do that. Okay so, authenticity sells. Right. So the first thing that we're gonna talk about is something, it's a framework that I've been kind of coming up with, I've been scheming up this framework, if you will. It's just something that I like to do on the side, I guess. And I casually dropped it in a team meeting the other day, so I was like, this is really good. This needs to go in my top 10 strategies. And I decided that this week should be the week to do this episode.'cause I've been thinking about it for a while and I've had a great week at work. So very excited about this. So anyways, the five A's are, get a pen and paper. Affirmations, attitude, alignment, attention, and authenticity. Here's the thing, babe, if the vibe is real and you're aligned and you're living in your truth, people are going to be able to see that because energy never lies when you embody the type of sales person that you wanna buy from, which is somebody that's confident, somebody that's honest. Somebody that believes in their product and knows their product, that's who you want to be. So, talking about affirmations, first of all, let me clarify what all of these mean. For affirmations, we're gonna be focusing on being affirmative in our language and our self-talk. So in the conversations that we have with ourselves about the deal, we're always going to, lead with a positive affirmative mindset and statements. So when you're trying to forecast or you're trying to predict whether or not an opportunity's going to close, you always err on the side of glass half full and the side of a winning mindset and just preparing to win. It is already done. You are preparing for that win. You are preparing for that money and that contract to flow in and for it to be yours. So that's the type of self-affirming conversations you wanna have with yourself. And then you also wanna have those conversations with anyone that you're co-selling with. Not a lot of people, I feel like in the sales world, understand the spiritual side of things, but a lot of them do understand a winning mentality and they go hand in hand if you believe that something is meant to be yours and that you're meant to accomplish a certain goal and live a certain life, then you will do those things and that's the bottom line. So just always spreading that type of awareness and having those types of conversations with people that you work with is really impactful and you will be surprised at how far it takes you when you challenge people's mindsets, like it's gonna make them uncomfortable. It's gonna make them be like, oh, you know, well, we have to, you know, we have to forecast whatever, like, whatever they're gonna say, I get it. When you're running a business, there's a lot of things to consider and it's not always easy to slap the manifestation bandaid on problems. But it is the best way to go about it because being negative and preparing for something negative is just putting all of your energy into that and just basically manifesting that. So energy doesn't lie and results don't lie either. I have had so much success in my sales career because of my mindset, not because I'm the best sales woman in the planet, by far not the best saleswoman on the planet. I have a lot to learn and I have a lot of growing to do in all areas of life especially when it comes to my career. Like I who doesn't, you know but I do really well, and there's a reason for that. The last thing that I wanted to say about affirmations is that you should be affirmative in the way that you speak to your clients as well, or your prospects. Saying language like when we work together and just basically assuming the sale for a lack of a better explanation. It just goes again in alignment with that energy sector of like you are aligned with this win. You are aligned with the success of this outcome, and you will speak to that and you will not speak to anything else because nothing else should be spoken. Simple as that. Next one is attitude. So I feel like I shouldn't have to explain this one, you should just have a good attitude. You should be thankful for people's time. You should be thankful for people's cooperation. You should be thankful for the opportunity to be doing what you're doing because people can smell a miserable, money hungry salesperson from a mile away and they don't like it. People buy from people nowadays. Trust is so important when it comes to selling in any market. It's really everything, and you don't build trust by having a bad attitude. I cannot stress this enough. I feel like this should go without saying again, but I won't assume. That should probably be another A in this framework. Okay, so for alignment, this is a little bit redundant, but it's just really hammering in again, on the energy and like being in alignment with what your target outcome is. Always being in alignment with that goal from a mindset perspective and from an action perspective as well when it comes to your attention. The fourth A, this is another one that I think should go without saying, but just pay attention. Pay attention to what people are saying. Pay attention to how people are acting. Practice active listening when you're on sales calls. Reflect things back to people, reflect their pain back to them, what you hear. It's pretty a cliche thing to say from a sales perspective, but it's true. People wanna be heard. And they wanna be understood and in this fast-paced tech heavy world with so many distractions, it is so valuable to listen to somebody and actually hear what they have to say, relay it back to them, and then provide a solution for them or a plan for them on how to solve X problem. I feel like that is very important. They all are, which is why they're in this top 10. But that one for sure. This also feeds right into the last A, which is authenticity. I said it before, if you're aligned and you're living your truth, you know it is done. Spirit already knows. The universe already knows. There's already a version of you out there that has completed this a million times over and this is just. You know, part of the motions. Really living in that truth, being in that truth, and just being honest, like being an honest person in the sales process, like, you know, not being a dirty salesperson is really important because you have to build that trust and you have to maintain that. So don't skip over any of the A's. The rest of them are gonna be a little bit more traditional, but. I feel like that's what's needed because this is what's helped me and this is what's important. So the next one is the bant framework. If you don't know what that is, it stands for budget, authority, need and timeline. Classic, but still solid. You don't always need to reinvent the wheel is kind of my perception on sales. Especially when you look at, like if you watch Mad Men for example, or you just look at like how selling was done in the past. There's a lot of tactics that stay the same. Budget, obviously you want to just have that conversation early on if you can. Getting a sense of if they have a budget allocated for this, a lot of people, or for whatever it is that you're talking about. A lot of people don't usually want to answer that or don't usually have a budget set aside, but it's so important to ask. Making sure you're talking to the right person in terms of authority, so you know, does the person on the other end of the call actually have the authority to sign this or not? How quickly do they need the solution and can you provide it by then? And, uh, what is the actual need? Like what are they, what kind of solution do they actually need? What problem are you actually solving for them? Number three is know who you're talking to. So do your research, be personable and always build rapport. This is another thing that I feel like should go without saying, but you should genuinely show care and interest in the people that you're talking to. Like, I don't know. I just, I just feel like you should, because that's how you build trust and that's how you remain authentic. And nobody wants to buy from somebody that's just an asshole for a lack of a better explanation. Number four, be direct and transparent. Redundant again, but this is super important. I always feel like it's always just better to lay it all out. Timeline costs, next steps, everything. Be super upfront about everything. I don't like it when people gatekeep information. If you're on a call and you're not giving budgetary numbers to somebody when they're asking because you just don't want to, like, it's one thing to, to pigeonhole yourself into an answer. It's another thing to be like, Hey, this is just an estimated range, but it could be anywhere from, you know, a hundred to 200 K, whatever it is. I don't, like I said, the gatekeeping of information just makes people not wanna work with you and go find somebody else who's gonna be easier to work with. So don't be that person. Another thing on that note is to leave no one left wondering, you should always be asking multiple times for questions and concerns to be addressed. So much so that they're like, no. And then they think of one. Because usually they'll come up with something when you keep asking. Number five is to understand pain points before offering any solutions. So always listen first and pitch second. Practice active listening. We talked about that as well. And if you don't know what that is, basically just means paying attention to someone while they're talking to you and always reflect back what you heard as well. Number six is to leverage the AI powered personalization that is available to us nowadays as salespeople. So letting AI craft hyper-personalized outreach and real time insights or reactive outreach that feels like mind reading is super, super powerful and people love it when you reach out to them super fast after they submit a form or, communicate with you in some way because they're already on like the jazzed up energy of looking for it and like being in the mindset of that. And it's just the best time to do that. So if you have a way that you can do that, leverage it. You should, because we do that at my company and it's phenomenal and it's always been something that I've done. And like people love it. They're like, oh my God, I literally just submitted the form. Like, hi. So yeah. That is super, super important. And then obviously if you're super busy and you have a ton of clients, it's not easy to handcraft, personalize every single email that you send out on a day-to-day basis. But we're so lucky that we have AI now that can help us with that, and we can add in the personalization as we see fit. So it's. That's just something that I, again, think should be leveraged because it's really just an efficiency thing. Like you don't need to spend 20 minutes on an email making sure it sounds perfect when AI can do that for you, and you can focus on doing something that actually matters, like building the proposal deck, having a conversation with them, having a conversation with your team member to fill them in on what's happening or what's going to happen. Something that is a little bit more difficult to be done by a robot. Number seven is to practice surprise and delight tactics. So what I mean by that is to have things that are kind of like freebies, popup experiences, thank you drops, things of that nature to create buzz and emotional memory. For example, my team and I are going to a conference in a couple weeks and we have a bunch of freebies that we're gonna be giving out, and then we're having parties and we have like swag that we'll have and merch or whatever at the booth. So, just something to like really create that community and like that brand name and for lack of a better phrasing, to really influence people with your branding. Number eight is to offer a hybrid virtuoso approach. So blending in real life time with digital conversations, I think is really important. So if you're like a primarily remote company or team, then still prioritizing like client visits where you send people out or whatever you need to do. I'm all for that, and also getting the team together is super important. Another thing I wrote for that one is to meet your people where they are and how they vibe. This is not gonna apply for every client. You should not just be hitting up every client in your black book or whatever. Um, that's totally not the right way to talk about it. You shouldn't be hitting up every client in your book to meet up in real life, if that's just not the vibe. Or if they're really far away and travel would be hard for them, or they're just not. Open to that. Maybe they're super busy. Maybe it's a cultural thing. I don't know. There's so many different things that could play into that. Sorry. Oh, that just hit me hard. Like I didn't even know it was coming. That's how you know I'm exhausted. This week has been a lot. Honestly, though. It's so nice to just be laying here and like not give a flying fuck about looking like a big, old, lazy woman. I'm like, I don't care. I'm so tired. Okay. Number nine is to lean on interactive and experiential selling, so using really immersive demos and conversations that are super collaborative, having interactive videos or touch and engage setup. This is for more like conferencey conversations. But also when it comes to like your website or the things that you're sending from a collateral perspective or an email perspective, having things that are personalized, interactive and just engaging is a lot more fun than your basic sales email. Or your basic, flyer, vendor booth. And then always letting your clients feel your value firsthand. I don't even really know how to elaborate on that one right now'cause I'm so exhausted. I'm gonna be so real with you. But I think, I think just sharing that is enough. Yeah, I um, I promised myself that I was gonna keep this one short. I've been keeping the episode shorter anyways'cause I think it's just easier for people to digest. And I also was just like, Hey, it's better to get something done than to not do something faster just because you want it to be perfect or you want it to be longer. Like, it's totally fine. I can just have a little bit of a shorter episode. So that's probably a good sales tip too. I mean, that is a good sales tip. I just don't know how to phrase it better and it's not in my outline, so I feel like I'm delusional right now. Like I'm literally about to fall asleep because I'm laying down. This is honestly dangerous. Okay. Number 10. We're coming to the wrap up. Nurture your word of mouth and micro influencer audiences. Honestly, I feel like I saved the best for last. Word of mouth is one of the strongest. Drivers of business ever. Always has been, always will be. Who you know is so important. Networking with people is so important. Trusting people is so important and having people that you trust is so important because you're always gonna go to those people before anyone else. So that's everything. The community that you build and the reputation that you build with people around you is everything. I try really hard to treat people with grace and kindness at all times because I want to be remembered this that way, and I want to be somebody that some, someone is always willing to work with. And I feel like I've done a really good job at doing that. I'm a very caring, sensitive, empathetic person. So, yeah, I just, it's something that I just strive for and I feel like it's part of my core values as a human being. Micro influencer audiences. As a micro influencer for myself, I literally cannot advocate for this one enough because it is such easy advertising to tap into these markets or these audiences, I should say, to be able to reach your different target audiences and, and expand into other markets. So tap into small but mighty communities and authentic people, authentic micro influencers, to spread the love very holistically, very naturally, and just like genuinely. Again, going back to the A framework, the five a's authenticity, all of that. Trust always beats followers, reviews, and presentations. I will literally say this a million times over. I don't know, I just feel like when I really trust someone for like, how they would view an experience and I'm aligned with how I think that they would view that experience. Sorry, the wheels are starting to stop spinning. I will just like take their word over it rather than like, go look at a page, look at reviews, anything of the like, I'm trying to think of examples. These are more. These are kind of like scaled down examples from a more day-to-day consumer perspective, but it's, I feel like it's super relevant, like nail salons always. If somebody recommends a nail salon to me or a nail tech to me, I will not look at the reviews to vet out their suggestion. I will just look at the page because I'll be excited to see the work that they do. But I won't need to like vet them out. Same thing goes with any other type of aesthetics recommendations honestly. Like, for injectables, haircuts, facials, eyelashes, eyebrows, anything like that. If I get a recommendation from a friend and I like what they got going on, I'm going to that place. I really value when I just see like normal people on the internet giving their opinions because no one's paying them to do it. No one's paying me to do this. No one paid me to talk about teamwork. I just genuinely love teamwork. And I think it's a great software. And I tell everybody that. That speaks volumes. So yeah, always remember that trust beats followers. Trust beats reviews. Trust is everything. So yeah, that's all I have for today. Like I said, wanted to keep it short and sweet this week and just get you guys something valuable that I think could be easily used and leveraged in the future. So if you have any questions, feel free to shoot me a note, but as always, I really appreciate you guys being here. I love you so much and I'm sorry that I didn't dive deeper into this, like I wanted to, but like I said, if you guys have questions, just let me know. This is always something that I'm gonna be talking about in one capacity or another, just because it's my life. I work in sales and I do this podcast on mental health and manifestation. So I'm always gonna be trying to align the two, not only for my podcast, but also for myself, because it is a never ending journey to try to have a good mindset and try to stay grounded and present when things don't go your way. I was in a totally different head space about work literally just a couple weeks ago because I had a couple, less, less productive or less producing, I should say, results producing days. And, you know, it's hard, it's hard to maintain a good attitude through the ebbing and flowing, but that is what matters the most in all areas of life. It is so important. So I cannot. I cannot stress it enough. Yeah. Love you guys. Thank you so much again for being here with me. I love you millions. And I'm excited for next week's episode. It'll come up quick'cause I will actually do it at the beginning of next week. And I'm actually not sure which one I wanna do next week, so it'll be a surprise. So, yeah. Love you guys. Thanks again for listening. All right, bye.