This isn't what sales should be....
I never imagined being a sales strategist, entrepreneur or coach as a child. I mean who dreams of a career in sales, right?
I actually imagined being a scientist, inventor, teacher, politician, and later on humanitarian (which is why I went on study Peace & Development Studies).
It's not surprising to me now that actually all these career options still resonate with what I've done and do now as a coach, mentor, educator, facilitator, creator, and entrepreneur focused on creating more positive social and environmental impact in the world, through working with other amazing social entrepreneurs.
But it's been a strange journey....and certainly not a traditional route.
I...
studied Peace & Development Studies and have an MA in Faith & Public Policy.
started working in local government (for the first 6 months post graduation) leading on gender equality and embedding the Equality Act within the council (a baptism of fire at age 21!)
trained as a facilitator and trainer building community cohesion for the first part of my career, leading organisations and big government contracts, whilst also working with (and against) government on their preventing violent extremism strategy in education, and supporting free speech in universities and colleges.
set up my first social enterprise (after years in the charity & voluntary sector as a project manager) with my best friend Jen, inspiring the next generation of innovators, scientists, engineers and creatives for social and environmental change, in partnership with huge corporates (it's still going strong 8 years on, which I'm so proud to still be a part of and see its continued success from one year to the next).
And after a short stint in the construction industry... still working around inspiring young people into training and employment, I found myself here leading this incredible community and running my own social impact business - Share Impact Ltd. with the mission to simply help more service-based, social enterprises grow their impact with a trading income.
But how did I come to focus on helping social entrepreneurs with their sales, pricing and mindset around value?
Well a realisation that there wasn't anyone else out there helping with this specifically and it was a real challenge for most social entrepreneurs and social impact business owners I spoke to.
It didn't feel like something I was comfortable stepping in to at first but I knew the fact it kept coming up, and that it was one of the biggest barriers to social enterprises scaling their important impact, meant I had to find a solution. You have to follow those "nudges" right?
Selfishly, it was also essential required for my own business. I wanted, and needed to learn, how to get comfortable and confident with sales, so I could scale my business.
Sales never felt like something I wanted to do as a business owner.
In fact it was the main reason I nearly didn't pursue becoming a social entrepreneur. I really didn't want to sell. I didn't want to be "a salesperson". Everything about it made my stomach churn.
But the truth is, sales doesn't have to be anything we don't want it to be.
Sales can be exciting, joyful, playful and fun.
We can be confident and 100% comfortable selling, as social entrepreneurs if we find our own unique way to doing it, aligned to our purpose and our values.
Sales can be re-defined for the 21st century, social enterprise economy and that's what I'm here to help you with.
....discovering a way to sell with ease. Discovering a way to no longer feel like sales isn't for you.
Discovering a way to take the pressure off.
Sales doesn't have to be pushy, persuasive, manipulative, aggressive, dishonest, cloak & dagger, excessive, or overwhelming.
It gets to be what you want it to be....with integrity, transparency, honesty, respect and equality. It gets to be about relationships, exchange of value, passion, purpose and making a bigger impact.
So if you're ready to sales differently come and join us in Aligned Sales, where I cover everything to help you transform the way you do sales and see an increase in revenue and profit in your social enterprise. Because time is too precious for you not to be sharing your gifts with the world and creating powerful social and environmental change today!
What do you want sales to be about? Message me, I’d honestly love to know.
This blog is taken from an email sent to members of my mailing list.
If you’d like to receive other great content, ideas and support like this then sign up to my mailing list here.
If you enjoyed this blog you may also enjoy:
